Another list for you, now that the weather is improving.
Here are ten open public spaces in London north of the River Thames. These are places, which I particularly enjoy. They are listed in no particular order:
1 Golders Hill Park
2 Kenwood
3 Kensington Gardens
4 Regents Park
5 St James Park
6 Holland Park
7 Hampstead Heath
8 Thames Barrier Park
9 Postmans Park
10 Soho Square
Picture taken in the Kyoto Garden at Holland Park
On my first day at my secondary school, Highgate School in north London, I was asked to choose which sports I would like to participate in. As the only one on the list that I had heard of was football (soccer), I chose that. On the following day, I had to join the other new boys in a trial game. I was horrified by how rough everyone was during this match.
The day after the match, two senior boys came to speak to me. They regretfully announced that I was not considered good enough to play football at Highgate. That did not surprise me, but what did was how solemnly they announced the news to me. The two school officials told me that I could select another sporting activity. I chose ‘cross-country running’, a sport that I had never heard of. I was told that I had chosen well. And, so I had.
Cross-country running was almost completely unsupervised. We were trusted to get changed into running clothes and then to trot around a route through the grounds of nearby Kenwood House. Being unsupervised, I saw no reason to run or to get tired.
My system on games’ days was to get changed, visit the school ‘tuck shop’, buy some snacks or confectionary, and then to take a leisurely stroll through the beautiful grounds of Kenwood.
Once a term, we were accompanied by our house-master on a run. He tended to lead us through rough ground and marshy areas. On one occasion, he stopped me and said:
“You don’t look muddy, Yamey”
I replied:
“Well, Mr Bowles, I thought that the object of the run was to get exercise rather than to collect mud.”
Much to Mr Bowles’ credit, he accepted my explanation, which was not the whole truth. Actually, I wanted to avoid getting dirty so that I would not need to waste time having a shower at the end of the afternoon, which would have delayed my departure for home.
Cameron has gone,
May will be ending,
Can Brexit now be resolv’d?
I was lucky enough to be invited by a friend to the annual Chelsea Flower Show. It would not be exaggerating to say that the displays of plants are all quite wonderful.
Among the show gardens, I spotted some fine examples of peonies, some in bud and others flowering. Seeing these brought back memories of my childhood when we lived in a house with a fine garden in north-west London. At one end of the garden, there were several peony bushes. At the appropriate time of the year, these plants produced almost spherical buds.
My sister and I were attracted to these buds and used to pull them off before they could flower. My late mother used to get very upset by our horticultural vandalism, and told us off so severely that I still recall our midemeanours on the rare occasions that I think of peonies, which is not all that often.
You will be pleased to read that I resisted the temptation to pluck any of the peony buds I saw at the Chelsea Flower Show!
And, here is an interesting fact: Peony is the name of a novel by Pearl S Buck. The story is set in China and features a Chinese Jewish family.
It is amazing how many things, which used to be done with two hands, are now done with only one hand. It worries me to watch a parent manoevering a child in a baby buggy off a bus or train literally single-handed, often while looking at a mobile ‘phone screen.
Why only one hand nowadays? The answer is simple. Many people seem incapable of going anywhere or doing anything if one hand does not hold a mobile ‘phone or maybe a bottle of water.
Why is it necessary to be permanently attached to a ‘phone? It can be kept in a bag or pocket within easy reach thus freeing up the hand for more productive uses.
And, what has happened to human metabolism that requires a bottle of water to be carried about? I might be old-fashioned, but several decades ago, nobody felt it essential to carry a personal water supply. Have we become more thirsty as a species, or what?
The humble bumble bee
Works diligently daily
To keep our planet green
The Internet is full of sites listing places you must see before you die, and so on. There are also some lists of places worth missing. All of these listings are usually subjective, as is my current list (in no particular order) of 10 or so places worth avoiding in London north of the River Thames:
1 CAMDEN TOWN
2 BRENT CROSS
3 KILBURN HIGH ROAD
4 OXFORD STREET
5 WESTFIELD AT SHEPHERDS BUSH
6 CAMDEN LOCK MARKET (OR BOROUGH MARKET)
7 PORTOBELLO ROAD ON SATURDAYS
8 COVENT GARDEN
9 KENTISH TOWN
10 WEST KENSINGTON (or KENTON)
I will not explain why any of these is on my list, and I do not expect that all of you will agree with me, but I hope that no one is offended by any of my dislikes!
Just in case this all sounds a bit negative, here is my current list (in no particular order) of 10 or so places worth visiting in London north of the River Thames:
1 KENWOOD HOUSE AND GARDENS
2 THE SOANE MUSEUM IN LINCOLNS INN FIELDS
3 THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM
4 THE BRIDGE THEATRE
5 TEMPLE CHURCH (OR ST BRIDES CHURCH)
6 LEIGHTON HOUSE
7 BRICK LANE
8 KINGS CROSS STATION CONCOURSE
9 TATE BRITAIN (but avoid eating there)
10 HIGHGATE CEMETERY (or BUNHILL FIELDS)
I have never been able to enjoy reading poetry and enjoy it. However, if it is read out aloud by someone else, I usually love what I hear. Poetry is like music made with words.
Here is a poem that I have enjoyed ever since I was a young teenager. It is Adlestrop by Edward Thomas (1878-1917). He was killed in France during WW1. His poem captures the essence of the world that reveals itself gradually when a train stops at a small country station.
I write a great deal on my computer. Although computers are generally reliable, they are prone to technical hiccups and even total failure. Therefore, I am in favour of following the generally accepted advice that it is a good idea, nay essential, that you save your work not only on the computer’s hard disc but also remotely from the computer.
I tend to back-up anything I don’t want to lose on USB memory sticks. However, being of a somewhat paranoid/neurotic nature, I do not place my trust in these alone. What if, for example, I lose one or one of them suddenly ceases to stop working as happened with a costly hard drive that contained almost five years of documents and photos and then suddenly ‘conked out’? To avoid this, I record everything on to two or more separate memory sticks.
But, still I am not completely content. Although large companies like Gmail, Dropbox and Microsoft might possibly go ‘bust’ one day, this is far less likely than me losing my memory sticks or my computer giving up the ghost. So, I upload my work onto the hard-drives or ‘clouds’ of the large corporates using Dropbox, OneDrive, and various email accounts I have created, which are dedicated to storing my work.
Call me over-cautious if you like, but I don’t care. Re-writing an important letter or a several hundred page book that has been lost because it has not been securely saved is not a prospect I relish! And, nor should you!
Kulfi: an Indian sweet,
Frozen joy:
Exquisitely enjoyable
yamey 