So I woke up today at 9.18, exactly. Well, if we’re being truthful this was actually the second time I’d woken up this morning, but there’s something irresistibly easy about turning off an alarm and going back to sleep, so let’s discount that. 9.18 – which would be fine, except the meticulously careful planning I had made the night before to go and visit Andrew in Cambridge specified a leaving time of 9.15. Great, so breakfast is already out of the question then. But as I rushed to clothe myself and get out of the house I realised that although I could dodge breakfast I couldn’t dodge a throbbing headache. Paracetamol please! Except there wasn’t any – not before I’d raided dad’s supplies anyway. But soon I was away, hopping from tube to tube until I arrived at King’s Cross with a perfect 10 minutes to spare…
…perfect, until the machine rudely refused to sell me a ticket. As did the next one, and the next one… and it was at about identical ticket machine #4 that I realised perhaps the problem lay with me. Cashpoint please! Except instead of precious money it served me with a simple yet chilling message: insufficient funds. Oh, dear 
Thankfully, I was able to locate an internet café in close proximity, transfer appropriate funds across in the blink of an eye and then manage to make the next train: so, only half an hour late. And it was all worth it in the end, for Andrew laid on a highly successful barbecue + wine combination. But I can’t stay away from London for long, and indeed must now log off from the life-saving internet café of joy (I still had time leftover, naturally) else I’ll be late for my next engagement. Phew!
Innocent, see?
So tonight was the Ken Livingstone supporters’ party in Camden, complete with a free bar, free food and badges which will certainly come in handy over the next few years. As Ken himself said, it wasn’t just filled with Labour people tonight but the much broader progressive coalition that made up his electoral base. And in all honesty, I think a great many people there would happily back Ken again in 2012 even if Labour did put up an alternative candidate. We all cheered when he reiterated his intention to run, anyway 
I couldn’t not…
Obviously, it would have just been wrong to have gone without trying to ambush the guy for a photo, so that’s just what I did. (Someone took a better quality one with a proper camera which might wing its way to me at some point.) So, yeah, woo!
Before all this hero worship (
) I spent a lovely couple of hours this afternoon at Hampstead Heath’s mixed swimming pond with Joshua, Sanna, Emily, Alice and a semi-separate Swedish contingent. Although the water was unsurprisingly freezing at first it soon became pretty bearable, and it was lovely to see everyone. Also – note to Saoirse here – we managed to steal a copy of Zoo \ Nuts (I forget which) from a laddish group, which Sanna had the honour of binning. Progressive politics: why not make a day of it? 
Oh, and one more thing… on Saturday, my visit to the faraway land of High Barnet for more Star Wars watching resulted in me walking in on a certain illicit activity:
Intense…
I don’t want to draw attention to Oliver, because I owe him one for the use of his spare bed that night. But Abi… well, lovely jumper!
Going somewhere
Contrary to rumour, I don’t hate cars. True, I do try to avoid them whenever possible and am increasingly hopeful that I’ll never even have to learn to drive let alone actually buy one. But I do hate places that bend over backwards to accommodate cars at the expense of everyone and everything else. Brent Cross shopping centre isn’t actually nearly as bad as it could be, being in London and thus included on a host of bus routes which sweep you through the car park and right up to the doors. But in recent years they’ve managed to develop a secondary retail park at the other side of the motorway, and – just my luck – it’s the bit with the large bookshop. Buses stop here, too, but the quickest way to get from one side to the other is just to walk on the footpaths over the roads and then try not to get killed by impatient drivers trying to get in or out of the car parks. And looking down at the ugly grey track on which ugly metal boxes are speeding along emitting ugly fumes, it’s hard not to wish that perhaps petrol prices could go up just a little bit more. (Although, of course, not in a way that’s going to threaten my 90p buses.)
The headline of the Daily Telegraph today, incidentally, was ‘You have the right to shoot dead a burglar’. *sighs*. Are Telegraph readers all armed now, too?
I keep on walking til the sun comes up.
Lucy’s been over for the past few days, so we’ve been around London playing our famous (it’s not, but it should be) Tube game: pick a random station with your eyes closed from the index, and then go there. Simple! This time the hand of fate directed us to Finchley Road & Frognal and East Putney, and on our travels we made two important discovered. One: Stiles Bakery near Angel station in Islington – don’t ask how we ended up there – does the most delicious milkshakes in the world. And two: The Forbidden Kingdom is the funniest film ever made. We spent the last 20 minutes or so literally in fits of barely-suppressed laughter at the terrible acting and hilarious clichés. Realising that no-one is going to read this blog and then go out and see the film just for it to make sense, I thought I’d perform a public service and provide a commentary to the plot as recounted on Wikipedia. Naturally, if you are planning to see it (why?) don’t read this. All right then, here we go…
“The film opens during a battle between Sun Wukong, the Monkey King (Jet Li), and heavenly soldiers amongst the clouds. It is then revealed the sequence was a dream when a young teenager, Jason Tripitikas (Michael Angarano), awakens in his room plastered with vintage kung fu movie posters. Michael Angarano is an actor who posses a single facial expression: whimpering distress. Every event in his life is met with it, including the discovery that he’s had a dream. After getting dressed, he makes his way to a pawn shop in South Boston’s China town to buy some new kung fu DVDs. This semi-derelict run-down pawn shop happens to stock brand new shrink-wrapped DVDs. Obvious, its customers were both very desperate and working in the entertainment industry. Like the makers of this film. There, he converses with Hop (a prosthetics-laden Jackie Chan), the shop’s elderly owner, and, while thumbing through some DVDs, he is drawn to a room full of antiques and notices a golden staff. Hop tells him that the staff is to be delivered to its rightful owner and then closes the door. As the door closes, slowly, we see Jason’s face enter its usual whimpering distress state.
On his way back home, Jason is attacked by local bully Lupo (Morgan Benoit) and his cronies who force him to take them to the store so they can steal some money from the old man. Several things here. First of all, the cronies of the local bully – and there are four of them – are content to spend their lives standing in a line behind their leader grimacing silently. Secondly, Lupo’s first move of bullying is to denigrate Jason’s bicycle as being a ‘loser cruiser’, which immediately becomes my favourite phrase ever for its sheer wickedness, had Lupo and Jason been seven years old. And finally, it should be noted that it manages to get very dark inbetween these scenes: obviously the boys went for a pizza with their victim off-screen to pad out the time. Feeling betrayed, Hop tries to attack the thieves with the staff, but is shot by Lupo (much to both Jason and Lupo’s cronies’ shock). And, ur, Lupo’s. Immediately after shooting, he starts babbling in a surprised tone and was clearly unaware that guns contain bullets. He tells Jason that he must deliver the staff to its rightful owner. Jason takes the staff and runs from the thieves. On top of a building, he is surrounded by the bullies, with Lupo warning Jason that he “saw nothing” (out of fear Jason may turn them in to police). Before Lupo can shoot Jason, he is suddenly pulled off the roof by the staff and travels back through time. Make a mental note of this moment: Jason is pulled off the roof of a building and falls – on his back – down to the concrete ground below. We’ll come back to this.
Continue Reading
My week
Please note that there is currently severe mood disruption between Waseley Prom and Leaving Party. This is due to ridiculous train services. Specific station information now follows:
Tricycle Theatre: A good service is operating – alight here on Monday evening for Moonlight & Magnolias, a very funny and well-done play made all the better by the unique atmosphere of the Tricycle.
QPCS Concert: Alight here on Tuesday evening for the Summer Concert, including excellent performances from Alice ‘New Girl’ Jenkins and somebody who played and sang Regina Spektor’s Samson to my great delight. Change here for the QPCS line. Please note that the QPCS line is running a reduced nostalgia service from June 2007.
Saoirse’s Birthday: A refreshments service consisting of lasagne, chips and chocolate cake operates at this stop. A reduced friendship service may operate whilst Saoirse reads a book bought from the ‘Business – Globalisation’ section of a bookshop.
Waseley Prom: Alight here on Thursday night for the Waseley Sixth Form Prom, featuring dancing, strict ID-checks and a cool bloke named Mike. Facebook links are available for customers wishing to connect to photos of this event. Change here to visit Lucy. Travel update: Injuries are being reported along this route. Please check with the operator of this service for further announcements.
Leaving Party: Under construction. Alight here for Barrie Birch’s leaving party: one of the defining faces of Queens Park leaves the scene! Change here for the QPCS line. Please note, in case you missed it the first time, that the QPCS line is running a reduced nostalgia service from June 2007.
Book Group: Under construction. Customers are advised to check the arrivals board for Saoirse and Sanna in order to discuss Lucas by Kevin Brooks.
Grandparent Tea: Under construction. All change please! This week will terminate here. Return trains are not running.
Helen on It’s (waiting) time.: “Fabulous news, congratulations to you both! X” Jun 8, 21:51
