The plan was to return to very light running on Saturday morning. I’ve had a fortnight off from pounding the mean streets of SW8, due to a calf strain. Plus also lethargy tbh.
I left it two weeks last time without any activity. BIG mistake. I was left stranded on the North side of Clapham Common and was put back to square one as all the Bright Young Things of SW4 sped past me.
Cheers, Bright Young Things of SW4.
I grow more cautious as I grow older when it comes to fitness. The opposite is true in other areas of my life.
Success doesn’t come from doing things right, Comrades.
And so a swim instead. A Lido pal has tipped me off about the Queen Mother Centre on the other side of Vauxhall Bridge. I’m happy with Vauxhall Leisure Centre for now.
But the QM has the bargain price of £23 a month for a swim membership. As a comparison, the converted gas showroom back in the bloody Estuary Wilds fleeces me £34 a month. Vauxhall is £40. One to ponder.
It wasn’t most successful swim on Saturday. There was another slowie in the fast lane. She had absolutely no awareness of those around her.
If you fancy your chances in the fast lane then fine. But once you have someone touching your toes when they catch you up every other length, then please read the signals and allow them to pass before setting off again.
Miss Slowie turned out to be a right one. She put on a pair of flippers. Like they were going to speed her up. She splashed around, causing general chaos and fuck ups in the fast lane.
It didn’t end there. The sauna is currently out of action at Vauxhall. The steam room remains open. This has led to a queuing system to get in.
It’s all very polite. There’s actually a roped off area and a sign saying where to queue. It’s not for me. It seems too formal for something that should be fun.
Miss Slowie felt the same. I headed to the showers to get changed, she jumped the queue and brazenly walked past three people waiting and gatecrashed her way in.
Some people.
Never trust anyone who wears flippers in a public pool.
I was cheered up on the bicycle ride back to base. The Flute Man of Sunny Stockwell was wearing a sweatshirt that declared: “I am the Queen of Sheba.”
Way to go, Flutie.
A magnificent tandem also passed me along Clapham Road to raise the spirits further.
Chapeau!
Robert Elms had an ACE interview with Pauline Black. Plus also a plug for a Soho photography exhibition that sounds half decent. I plan to have a shifty sometime next week.
It also led me into a camera search wormhole. I’ve pretty much decided on the next model that I want to buy. I travelled through different layers of the modern interweb wormhole, ending up at… urban75.
Oh.
That nice Mike Urban had the exact same model. I never knew that. I’ve become something of a Mike Urban camera stalker.
From behind The Athletic paywall:
“Notts County, the club battling for the division’s sole automatic promotion spot this season with top-placed Wrexham, showed a loss of £1.7million for 2021-22. Total borrowing from the club’s owners, meanwhile, had climbed to £12million.”
OUCH.
Sticking with the Fair City, I fired up some of the We Share These Streets podcasts. They’re fantastic! The idea is to narrate a short form story that focusses on the real life of a character from the history of Nottingham.
The Carol with an E episode resonated. It featured the old Ice Stadium. It told tales of how generations of kids from the Fair City spent their Saturdays walking towards Parliament Street carrying ice skating bags.
The Carol with an E story came full circle. The young skater from the 1950’s that was the subject of the research ended up living at… Larkhall Rise. I peered out the flat window.
OH HAI Carol with an E.
Buzzed: Lambeth Council set to spend an extra £3.5m on parking enforcement with expected revenues of £35m
“Lambeth Council has a statutory duty to enforce parking within the borough. The revenue from parking penalties accounts for approximately £35m annually.”
To Dulwich Hamlet! Wearing a Cravat!
I cycled off to Champion Hill as the Cravat Twat of SW8. It wasn’t so much a fashion statement, but more to do with the spring chill in the air. It was very pleasant cycling around the back streets of Camberwell with the sun on my face.
There was crazy, crazy queues outside the ground with half an hour to go before kick off. The game was a sell out, with what looked like around a thousand people queuing for what might be left of the limited tickets released on the day.
I waltzed in with my season ticket, natch.
It was Non League Day, as well as some kind of connection with Athletic Bilbao who had representation.
The football was poor during the first half and so was the dreaded BANTZ. I was stuck in front of half a dozen Bright Young Things who were attending their first match. They were more interested in the exploits of Wazza on his Stag Weekend than the pink ‘n’ blue boys.
“COME ON HAMS!”
That was the final straw for me. Yes, I’m such a Dulwich snob. It’s great that the club get 3,000+ fans, week in, week out. But you have to balance this with the culture that has developed around these big match occasions.
I had far more fun with D in the more spacious and civilised Dulwich women’s match last weekend. And the girls won, unlike the 2-2 draw for the men today.
My fortunes changed at half time when by complete coincidence I bumped into C. I’ve not seen him in over 25 years. We used to live together for three years. I really enjoyed catching up. He hasn’t aged one bit.
I was back in the flat in time to catch the final quarter of the Essex Rebels stream. The girls always seem to win when I’m not around. Watching a WBBL basketball stream via YT puts you dangerously close to becoming a Rebels groupie.
I sold a Rock Steady Crew album. Which was random. It wasn’t quite the price I wanted, but it will do.
Having mentioned yesterday that I’m after Paddy McALoon’s I Trawl The Megahertz, well, now I’m not. I put in a ridiculously cheeky offer of £3. Job’s a good ‘un.
Saturday evening was spent watching the latest Picard that dropped yesterday.
SPOILER alert: it was an emotional one. My tears didn’t come with the return of everyone’s favourite android. It was Seven seeing the old Voyager that sparked me off.
Links for Saturday 25th March, 2023
Spitalfields In Kodachrome | Spitalfields Life
