Tuesday 25 September 2012

"Why is nobody talking about me?"

I was pleased with myself on Friday night.  Very pleased indeed. We'd switched the TV on, and Tom Jones was singing in a very beautiful looking hall.  It took me just a few short moments before I turned to The Cat's Mother and said, "I know that place...it's St Luke's."  I went on the TV guide and sure enough I was right.  I've never been there...well not inside anyway, but I was right...I whooped at my own cleverness...and spent the next half an hour trying to work out how I knew.  I was cock-a-hoop, she was modestly pleased, perhaps.

When The Cat came in I told her about my cleverness.

Two pairs of eyes were raised to the ceiling.

The Boy showed interest, no more.

Nobody shared my sense of impressiveness.

In fact, whilst I'd never been inside, I was familiar with the building from the outside.  After splitting from The Boy's Mother, I had bought a flat in a building which had been converted from an old printing works...it was loft living, just near Old Street in central London.  Just round the corner from me was a burnt out and derelict church - St Lukes - which I spent hours musing over.  It's derelict look I thought should be preserved...it was part of it's history...so I had grand plans for it which would involve the whole structure being encased in glass.  Actually I wanted to convert the inside, which for years was frequented by drug addicts and down and outs into a house for me to live in, whilst knowing that would never happen.  Unbeknownst to me the building had been acquired by the London Symphony Orchestra and was to be used as practice rooms and as a small venue.  I was disappointed when it was refurbished and rebuilt because no one had followed my secret plans, and not so long after it was finished I moved away.

But it was good to see...and hasn't Tom Jones still got a cracking voice?  And wasn't I clever to recognise that building from the inside?

On Sunday night whilst the kids were partying we were doing a YouTube safari.  We started off with Andrew Gold "Oh what a lonely boy".  There was a link to one of the things we'd done earlier on in the week.  I wonder if you can work it out?

On Wednesday we'd been on the Gingerline - a secret dining club...you pay your money and book which night you want to go.  Half an hour before it starts, you get a text which tells you where to go...it will be somewhere on the 'Gingerline'...the Eat London Line - one of the new overground lines.  We'd not been before, but we do enjoy Secret Cinema so thought this would be fun.  Indeed it was.  We ended up in a dodgy part of London that neither of us had ever been to, enjoyed a fabulous meal in very chintzy surroundings with people that we would never have met otherwise.

Many, many years ago I spotted a railway bridge over one of the London canals in east London and desperately wanted to buy it to turn into a fabulous home.  It never happened, of course, but it was a wonderful dream to have...the bridge is now part of the East London Line which I now so enjoy travelling on.

We were fortunate with the weather on Saturday as we'd booked tickets for us and eight others to go to Hampton Court to attend the outdoors cinema there.  We'd hoped to travel on a boat down the Thames and make a day of it, but the boat schedules didn't allow that...so we travelled by car instead, forgoing a picnic on the lawns for a meal in a local restaurant.  When we arrived we settled down, and quickly realised that late September means very chilly evenings...we wrapped up and wrapped up again to try and keep warm..but it was a challenge even to watch the very magical West Side Story - a film that oddly only The Cat's Mother had actually seen before.  It was fantastic, fully deserving of its ten Oscars...a wonderful story (thank you William Shakespeare) and some terrific songs.  Here's an interesting link



Anyway let me know if you work out the puzzle