Kingston - a tribute

So anyway - I find myself on a Saturday afternoon in Kingston, usually one of my least favourable of activities due to the busyness of the whole place. Plus I usually hate shopping.

However, today I really thought to myself "What a great place". Even the tolworth teens didn't dampen it. Having bought a nice sandwich from Clocks (voted best UK sandwich shop several times) I walked over to the garden off Church Street, behind Eden Walk (I can never remember the name of the Church itself) to eat it. Not only that but behind me was a sax busker who was excellent (I so should have crossed his palm with silver, so to speak). As an added bonus, my bottle of Ribena Light was 2for1 at Wilko's...

Anyway - this was probably the last time I'll go into town like this. Maybe I'll have to do it again soon. Nostalgic after 5 years it would seem. Bah. So here's a list of things I will and won't miss about the place:

Miss:

• The river
• Richmond Park
• Clocks sarnie shop
• "Out of order" - the fallen phoneboxes
• The Grey Horse pub (plus the Ram Jam out the back)
• Uniqlo!
• Natterjacks
• That girl in Millets who's always so friendly (after she's taken my money of course)
• The fact that its all there if you want it.

Won't miss:

• The saturday traffic
• The journey to work
• The council tax
• Saturday night in town
• The kind of people hanging around for a bus on Eden street
• The fact that noone ever comes down here :o(
• Missing a train at Kingston

Ta ta Kingston.

Happy0

A month

A month ago I was sitting in the sunshine in a field in Glastonbury feeling decidedly hippy-ish with some grass and a flower in my hat next to the as-yet-unused acoustic stage. Pure bliss. From that moment onwards, something seems to have gone awry in the world.

For starters I think the almost surreal weather given to us on the friday morning was probably some sort of punishment for the amount of pear cider and beer consumed. The screening of Ferris Bueler on the Thursday night was probably the only time anyone sat in front of the cinema screen. From friday morning on the whole glastonbury site turned into a complete mess - moving from place to place became a chore; standing still for more than a minute meant you'd probably lose a shoe or two; not to mention the poor folks who had everything washed away.

Of course it couldn't take the shine off the whole thing, in fact its one of those "it wouldn't be the same without" moments. And thanks to that guy who sold me those wellies without me having to queue for 3 hours at Millets. Highlight for me was probably the Coldplay set - partly because of the crowd... Oh and the RAC bloke on the way home.

Then we find ourselves in a new situation, after numerous terrorist attacks on London (failed and otherwise) - perspective seems to be a bit skewed. Obviously I find it easy enough to get on with life though it certainly sticks something at the back of your head. Most people will look on to these events and have probably been to the locations, though still have a relative feeling of safety. When this then happens just round the corner (shepherds bush), you start to get a bit more concerned.

Not that I won't get on a bus or a tube - I will. I just hope that something can resolve this situation, not just of London but of a syndrome that seems to be infecting people around the world despite the lessons learnt over the course of history - violence is not a way of expressing your feelings. Obviously the reaction is to hit them back hard (as has started with yesterday's shooting at Stockwell) but somehow, somewhere there must be a solution to a problem that isn't just us and them, as we're all us.

As July rolls to an end and we all hope for the sun to come back for August (especially in Edinburgh please!) lets hope that at some point we can maybe remember we've also got the olympics to plan for!

happy0

Rounders and Oyster

The end of another Bank Holiday weekend and I've come out of it without my bankcards or my flipping oyster card. Hurrah for beer I say. Still was good to spend pretty much two whole days in the sunshine - makes you able to forget about this bloomin' election nonsense that's polluting the world. I vote for the sun.

What a wondefully useless post.
happyzero