JJ's Muse

This was my number, on the ticket I pulled out of the machine at the blood testing place today. The no. on the display was 23. *The following our the things are wrote down while I was waiting.

You can probably imagine my internal despondency at the thought of the wait that was ahead of me. In fact, I think the process towards that feeling actually started the moment I entered the tiny side space that has been given over to it, and saw the number of other internally despondent people who were sitting down. – Would this shared communal feeling be enough to call us a community? Continue reading

I had a really unhelpful, unsatisfactory, and upsetting phone call today with an unknown person at a hospital.

I wanted to call a friend who had been admitted, and wish her happy birthday. I was stonewalled in my efforts as the person on the phone refused to tell me if she was still there, quoting rules and regulations, which didn’t seem to exist a few weeks back. Continue reading

” I don’t like pigeons that fly”

This was a comment from my friend that had me laughing away. It made no sense to me!

She went on to clarify that as long as they weren’t flying around, she was fine with them. Once they take flight though, she will look for the quickest escape route, ‘ducking ‘n’ diving’ and maybe hollering. Either way, you’ll know about it

I don’t think she’ll be joining the Save Trafalgar Square Pigeons campaign anytime soon! Continue reading

An unexpected delay last Monday created tthe opportunity to hear some wonderful music.

I was due to meet a friend at Charing Cross, but she had been held up. As I mused about what I going to do, the choice seemed to be just nipping to a coffee shop across the road or going to a really nice coffee shop on Monmouth Street. – I haven’t actually been there yet, but some serious coffee drinker friends of mine highly recommend it, and I have been to the one in London Bridge. ( Monmouth Coffee Company)

Anyway, I digress..

I then remembered that I had wanted to check out The Crypt at St Martin-in-the-field, which triggered another memory, which was that I’d read somewhere that they have free lunch time concerts.

So off I went to see what I could find out, and was pleasantly rewarded by finding out the lunch time concert (held on a Mon, Tues, & Fri) was starting at 1pm. With 15mins to go, I headed back up to the church, where I had not long passed through a throng of people going in. – I think I had assumed they were tourists or going in for a service!

I became a part of the throng, and with my concert sheet in hand sat down in anticipation, hoping I would get some of the concert before my friend arrived.

Click for a list of March Concerts

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I discovered the South Bank when I took up running a few years ago. Until then I never really appreciated what it was like, what it had to offer, and in reality, probably where it actually was. If I’m honest, I probably still don’t know officially what is classed as the South Bank, but for me, it is from the London Eye down to the bridge/underpass which takes you to the Tate Modern.

This is such a great walk at whatever time.

I knew about the London Eye, the London Acquarium, County Hall etc, but probably would have seen them as independant entities which occupy the same space.

It has been great to discover the ‘nooks and cranies’ it has has to offer: The skate board/bike space just after the National Theatre, the art displays sometimes outside the National Theatre, the street artists, from dancers to human statues, the little cul-de-sac of shops just before the Oxo Tower, the free art in the gallery along that walkway, the different stalls and festivals that happen – always a pleasant surprise as I hardly ever know beforehand that they are happening! All this is just the tip of the ‘iceberg’. Continue reading

Last Saturday (21st Feb) I and a friend enjoyed music and culture for the price of bus fare (if you exclude the coffee and cake indulgence).

We joined an eclectic group of friends, tourists, locals and theatre goers in the National Theatre Foyer. They have free concerts every evening Monday-Saturday in the ‘Djanology Concert Pitch’. That Saturday the fabulous musicians were Errol Linton and Jean Pierre Lampe.

Under their names it simply said ‘Blues and Reggae’, which in the words of one review of them I have since read, are ‘unlikely bedfellows’, yet done successfully.

Errol and Jean Pierre were a delicious blend of harmonica and double bass.

In addition to this Errol was foot stamping, singing and did a stint on the piano. Jean-Pierre held nothing back, evidenced by the sweat that washed his face.

Errol mentions at one point that they are usually a 5-piece band. I am glad it was just the two of them. They had a harmonic distinctiveness that was so engaging.

The eye contact between them was effortlessly artless, showing them to be a proper partnering of talent. Vibing off each other and giving us the listeners, musical synergy which was sweet to the ear. Enjoy your city!

People of every hue were joined together in the enjoyment. Feet tapping, heads bobbing, bodies swaying, almost in complete unison. People were sat wherever they could find space, changing position, shuffling along to make more room, dipping in for a bit, staying the course. It could be described as poetry in motion.

I berated myself once again for not making more use of this kind of an opportunity. Stuff like this handed to me on a plate, and in the present financial climate. Come on!

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