Some bloody fiddly WordPress school updates first thing on Tuesday. One of the Table plugins I use had a refresh. It’s a shame the same can’t be said for the Developer notes.
I spent far too long trying to carry out the simple task of adding some pdfs to a table. I got there eventually, but it did delay the day.
Album of the Day: Outkast – Speakerboxxx / The Love Below
I’m pleased that I started to play these albums early in the morning. Two hours is a lot of music to take on board. It was too much for me. I sometimes struggle with all three Sandinista albums in one sitting. Apologies, but I bailed at track 9. It offered up some hip hop humour and honesty, but it wasn’t enough. I prefer UK hip hop.
⭐ ⭐
Most of the day was then spent on #nffc Twitter Watch. I tried to limit myself to half hourly updates. Signing a three times European Cup Winner is fitting for a club that has lifted the famous trophy twice.
To Camden! …mid-morning. For shit ‘n’ giggles. I’ve not been up there in years. I was free during the day and so decided to give it a go whilst the weekend tourists weren’t around.
Christ it was shit. I must have been the only man in NW1 not wearing a North Face body warmer. I did a quick up and down of the High Street and stables, and then buggered off to Primrose Hill to find some peace.
Primrose Hill is quite incredible. You can seen the London basin right in front of your eyes, from North London, down the dip, and then all the way back up to Crystal Palace on the other side.
The panoramic view is also deceiving. St Paul’s appears to be located right in the heart of the City. It’s not a million miles away, but it looks really odd positioned so close to the Cheese Grater.
Clusters from the City and Canary Wharf merge. The City becomes one. That’s enough of the psychogeographic bollocks. I wandered down to Withnail’s Gates by London Zoo and recited my best “What piece of work is a man” speech.
I am on holiday by mistake, after all.
I walked back along Parkway. I stumbled across the most amazing charity music shop. It stocked vinyl, CDs and cassettes. Plus old Hi-Fi, merch and magazines. It was staffed by a charming old school punk. I tipped off R and told him to get his arse over to NW1 and clean up with the cassettes.
My CD haul included The Jam, Dylan, Mozza (sorry) and Peter Gabriel’s debut. There was so many other delights, most of which would have been duplicates for me. Lowgold’s debut – possibly one of my top 10 fave albums – was on sale for £1.
I made my way back down to Camden. There was a half decent cover of Blackbird being bashed out by a tube station busker. Some fella was also using a payphone. Blimey. A Camden victim passed me wearing what was the largest pair of flares I have seen. Camden isn’t for me.
To Whitechapel! And why not. It’s piss easy these days, heading down to TCR, and then letting the Lizzie Line whizz you over.
Brick Lane and surrounds were something of a surprise. The main Whitechapel drag remains bustling with halal food and sari shops. But then behind this and Brick Lane is Vintage Central. I fear that E1 is heading in the same DM shop nostalgia direction as NW1.
I navigated the piss alley that leads to Freedom Books. I love spending half an hour or so looking around and finding like-minded views.
I also popped into the Whitechapel Gallery for a bit of late afternoon art shit. There was an interesting exhibition about travellers.
A second exhibition explored and encouraged the idea of creating a free space for creativity. The Dry Cleaning debut was playing very loudly over the PA system. I took a seat on one of the settees and pondered how doing fuck all can be a creative act in itself.
Having bigged up the Lizzie Line, it was b0rked for the return journey back to S Ldn. I had to catch a District Line all the way across to Victoria.
The District / Victoria interchange was my regular commute from ’95 to ’97. I went through tunnels and interchanges that I’ve not seen in decades. I use to leg it down those stairs, keen to get back to Brixton in the evenings. Age has caught up with me.
Back at base and the daily eBay mails served up a beautiful Giant ONCE bicycle. At £500 it’s probably overpriced by around £250.
I watched the Newcastle Vs Southampton game, whilst still scrolling through #nffc Twitter.
Links for Tuesday 31st January, 2023
Greenwich Council refuses to say if it still backs foot tunnel cycling – 853
“People need to see justice being done”: CyclingMikey says camera cyclists suffer online abuse because some motorists feel they have the right to drive how they want”
