London is your oyster

Well, it's open tomorrow and Sunday. I use it as an opportunity to poke into the little places close to home. Hopefully no queues then. Hackney has some great green design homes and offices that are open. There's nothing like going poking around places where people actually work or live for a bit of fun.

One special place that I ran across last year was the Hoxton Hall on Hoxton Street. I'd walked past it for months, popping in, I was quite surprised to find 3 tiers of seating looking down at a quaint little stage. It's available to hire for parties, and I would have loved to have my wedding there. It only holds 100 people tops these days, for fire regulations. But in the past, when fire regs were much more relaxed, it held up to 1000 people. Yup! an order of magnitude more people. Squeezed through that little inconspicuous door on Hoxton Street and I dreamed of the past, a good 30 minutes of my time well spent.

I also popped into my local library to pick up a free paper copy of the booklet for Open London. You might want to too.

Trite

Hmm, having started a blog, I was suddenly hit with the big question: is this all a bit too trite? What's the point of writing a blog if I'm going to be trite. Will anyone care, should I be all about the deep, meaningful issues. And unfortunately, more importantly, if I am writing a trite blog, what does that say about me?

I read a variety of blogs, some always deep and thought-provoking and concerning issues of great import to society. I also read a lot of crafty goodness, some fashion blogs because I like clothes, and then there are the bloggers that are just like me. Often they're just documenting their day-to-day existence, often with a whole lot less advice than I'm doling out here. That's probably a good thing, but the advice is in me, can't do much about it.

I'll just have to fight the trite by trying to ensure I don't tell you all to do the same things everyone else is telling you to do. Not too sure if I can up the interest level, you'll like it or you won't. Though I do find it amusing that I live in Hackney, does that make this automatically hackneyed? Hope not. Time will tell.

Credit goes out to Fin Fahey from Flickr for the photo.

Hoxton Street: A slice of life EastEnder's style

I really love walking down Hoxton Street to visit Anderson's bakery for a fresh loaf of sandwich bread. As I pass the many cafes on my way, I'm always hearing snippets of conversations. Mostly I listen for the accents, and it's very Cockney. The shop that has anything you might need, except for food is halfway down, just across from F. Cooke's pie & mash. Try the jellied eels sometime, they're served hot with mash and are like a very nice, light white fish. The jelly melts when they're heated, so don't be afraid. The shop owners along the way are all quite chatty too.

I guess I just really like the feeling of this street being my local street, warts and all. They're all just getting on with their lives, there's not much posing (except for the group of boys outside one of the fried chicken shops). I've only seen a couple of fights on the street and I've been visiting several times a week for a year and half.

The market on Saturdays is good for fake versions of fancy handbags and questionable Top Shop clothing. For me, I prefer the street during the day during the workweek. But I realize that it won't be possible for many of you to visit then. If you ever do get the chance, have lunch at F. Cooke's then head to a cafe with outdoor seating for a cuppa to watch life go past.

Come to Carnivale in Notting Hill

Notting Hill Carnival is this coming bank holiday. There are two big days of fun. Sunday has a kids and family focus, with a children's parade. While Monday the parade is more about the adult groups, but there are still many children taking part, so don't be put off by that.

I can only speak to Monday, but I performed last year and I'm performing again this year. Get there early if you're interested in the parade. Our group, Paraiso, tries to get close to the front, as it's first come first served for groups in the parade. Samba is energy intensive, so you'll want to see us closer to the beginning of the route than near the end. It often takes 2 hours of almost continuous performance to reach the end of the route, so everyone is rather pooped by the end of it all. Our best performance will always be nearer the start of the route. You can even follow us on GPS this year, woo!

We practice all year for this one performance, and I'm sure many other groups do as well. So everyone is putting their all into making a wonderful, exciting experience for you. Looking into a sea of cameras is flattering, but the real thing that you can give to the performers is a lovely smile and a bit of a dance yourself. I find it energizing to see the audience dancing along as we parade past. We're not just bashing away at our drums for the samba girls in their feathers to dance along to, it's meant for everyone, so join in. You can even get a preview of this year's song here.

Thanks to Felixtree at Flickr for this photo of Paraiso 2008.

Everyday Life: Ethelburga Tower

I popped into the Geffrye Museum this weekend, as you do. There's a special exhibition on at the moment, which had me transfixed. Mark Cowper has photographed the inhabitants of his tower block from the about the same spot in each flat, which are all about the same size & layout. Mark surprised the tenants too, so there was no cleaning of the house before he knocked on their doors. But each flat is so very different and I sat for a long time watching the slide show of rooms go past. Each go round the building watching for different details: what they put on their walls, how much clutter they have, looking for the focus of a room, the layout, the lights, what's on the telly. I was there a while.

Yes, you could breeze in and look at the room full of photographs very quickly. But if you're interested in how people live, which I am a total sucker for, then you'll really love this chance to explore other people's lives.

There is only one more week left, until the 31st of August. Get there while you can.

A dreamy read

I just finished Autonauts of the Cosmoroute today. I happened upon it at my local library, whilst perusing the travel section's shelves. It's my go-to section of the library, always visited even when I don't go there in need of a book. I'm the first person to check this one out, always an honour. It just caught my eye, but has turned out to be far more influential than perhaps even it playfully suggested it might be.

The book begins with a lengthy prologue which served at first to make me wonder what I had gotten myself into. Such formal language, such seriousness. But I grew to see it was all in fun. And then finally the voyage embarks. You could fly through this book, but take time to savour the vingettes. Each day becomes its own story, quite different from the last. Some stories continue days after they began. Postmodernism, I now remember why I like you so much.

It served to remind me of the importance of love, how wonderful the VW kombi is for travel, and that my need to travel may not always require me going so far from home in order to find another world.

I can't wait to delve into Cortazar's other works.

Linda Plaisted's Dreamy Photomontages

I have four small Linda Plaisted prints in my kitchen. October, the one above, is my personal favorite, especially if you get the metallic print. My cleaning lady is in love with the crows, particularly this crow, the town crier. There's currently a sale on in her shop, 20% off orders of $50 or more, about 35 quid. One day I'd really like to get a large print, so I could really see the shimmery depths in it.

I like her work, I just thought that I'd share.