Reflections On Surviving Another Year
As I sit here typing at the computer and watching Graham Norton, I can take comfort in surviving another year. Nothing remotely serious happened, although I was badly effected by the incredible heat of the summer, which was made more unbearable by Gerry’s terrible roof.
So the roof and my bathroom are now fixed and 2015 will be the Year of the Kitchen. I’ve already press-ganged a Project Manager and someone to install it, who although he is not reliable, I know will deliver at some point. I also don’t have any communication problems with my schizophrenic other half. I remember Nobby and myself having a discussion about whether all great programmers have two personalities; one to do the programming and one to do the testing. We felt on balance they do!
C and I had some good New Years and some bad ones. I always remember this good one for selfish reasons, but the Millennium was great in Deya. In fact some of the other good ones were totally unplanned and a party or good time just happened. Just as the bad ones did! The worst one was probably, when C died just before Christmas and my advice to anybody in that situation, is to think carefully how you handle that difficult time. Everybody is different and we all respond to the same situation in different ways. So we must make a selfish decision. Something that like me after forty years of living with someone in a great deal of harmony, was not easy.
I did go away to Venice that we loved a couple of months after C died, just to prove I could travel abroad alone. I would advise people to do that! You certainly learn a lot about yourself, when you’re alone in a foreign country.
C had the language skills, the knowledge of food and wine, and I had the camera and I like to think she trusted my practical skills.
A couple is a sentient being with two brains and four of most things, like hands and eyes. Think how many small simple jobs need three hands for a start.
Gluten-Free Wednesday
The reason I went to Haverstock Hill was not to see the dreadful eyesores, but as it was Wednesday, it was to have gluten-free fish and chips at Oliver’s.
It was a very worthwhile trip and with the exception of some fish and chips at Rick Stein’s in Padstow, which cost probably a lot more, it was the best I’ve eaten. In some ways that is an unfair comparison, as in Cornwall I was with C. And then for many years before I was diagnosed as a coeliac, I never ate battered fish. Something was probably telling me, it was poisoning my gut.
But the plaice and chips today was superb. C hated chips, but she’d have loved these. There can be no better accolade!
Eyesores On Haverstock Hill
Hampstead is a very posh part of London, but walk down Haverstock Hill and you see some of the worst buildings in London.
The church is having the cheek to object to the hospital building a new research centre.
A better solution would be to demolish both the Royal Free Hospital and St. Stephen’s church and use the enlarged site to build something that fitted better into the area. Like a prison or a factory making garden gnomes.
Seriously though, the hospital was built in 1974 and it can’t be many years until, it will need either severe refurbishment or replacing.
This would surely give a chance to improve the whole area.
The church is the sort of building, that gives the heritage industry a bad name. Wikipedia says this about its restoration.
A lease on it was awarded to the St Stephen’s Restoration and Preservation Trust in 1999 and, after this body raised over £4 million from English Heritage, the Heritage Lottery Fund, local businesses and individual donors, it has restored it to a usable condition in three phases.
I’m sure all of those who play the lottery loved that their money went towards restoring an eyesore like this. I don’t play the lottery as it is a tax on the poor. I do object though that English Heritage put money in, as that could be part of my taxes. If individuals want to waste their own money on a building that would serve best as good hardcore, that is their own affair.
Match Twenty-Four – Ipswich 3 – Charlton 0
The biggest crowd at Portman Road for four years welcomed Charlton, who were efficiently dismissed by three goals to nil.
So Ipswich cling to their second position, just one point behind the leaders; Bournemouth.
I do think that Greater Anglia could provide a better service after an evening match.
It had been a very cold night and the match had overrun a bit, so perhaps if the coffee and other drinks had been available later, it might have made the journey home for a lot of fans better.
As it is I went home in an ordinary Class 360, rather than the Mark 3 carriage with an attached buffet car you get on Saturdays.
But at least getting back to the capital afer a midweek evening match is easier from Ipswich, than quite a few places I could name.
The Crystal Reindeer
This Christmas art was at the back of Broadgate.
Strangely, there was no details of the artist.
The Gherkin And The Light
The sun this December has been astounding.
I was trying to get a picture of the light reflections on the Gherkin and the other buildings and took these images.
Also Available In Red
I saw this New Routemaster on Bishopsgate.
Also Available In Red
It must be a nightmare to keep clean.
The Site Of The Kings Cross Problems
These pictures show the state of the Canal Tunnels on the Monday after the troubles of the Saturday.
Compare these pictures with the one in this post taken in August, which I have added. All pictures are dated in their descriptions.
The overhead wires now seem to be up for a start. I shall keep trying to get better pictures of these tunnels.
Sawyer And Gray At Highbury Corner
Highbury Corner is a bit short of eating places that appeal to me. Over the past couple of months, I’ve passed a new cafe called Sawyer and Gray on my way to the bus stop to get the 30 home.
Today, after coming back from my travels to the station and after buying my Sunday Times in the littleWaitrose, I ventured inside to have a cup of tea.
I liked what I saw and decided to have some scrambled egg and smoked salmon for an early lunch.
It was very good and I shall go back again. When Kings Cross and Euston have got their escalators fixed, it will be very convenient for a sustaining drink on the way home from a trip up north.
Note that the restaurant is a bit of a Tardis and as it has a basement with seven tables, it’s a lot bigger than it appears from the street.
The Party’s Over!
Network Rail and their engineers may have had problems at Kings Cross, but the new bridge at South Tottenham station on the Gospel Oak to Barking Line opened a few minutes before the previously published time of ten o’clock.
I was able to get the 09:45 train westwards from the station towards Gospel Oak.
I wonder how long it takes before a vandal puts some graffiti on the brand new bridge.
The Anonymous Widower 