After the flood

Merton High Street is still closed to traffic at our end. This with the warm weather has brought on a strange village feel to the area. For the first time since I have lived here I can hear children playing outside our flat. People are stopping to chat to one another. The local businesses are all trying to recover their stock and throw out what is ruined and they are all out on the street chatting. The eradication of the traffic noise is just blissful. Long may it last!

Stranded in York while Wimbledon floods

We traveled home on Sunday afternoon by train. When we got to York we were informed that we had to leave the train and there would be little chance of us getting to London in less than 4 hours and there were about 3 train loads worth of people trying to get on this slow train. (From York it should take 2 hours to London.) It all had something to do with some unspecified problem with over head lines near Doncaster. We were advised that our tickets would be valid the next day if we were able to stay in York.

We decided that we should stay overnight and get an early train back to London in the morning. I was very, very stressed by all of this. We found a room at the Hilton and were settled just after 6. Jase then tried to get in touch with his computer at home to check his email. The computer was dead, as was our phone answer machine when we tried it. This could only mean a power cut. Jase was very, very stressed by this. I had a search on the web and discovered that a water mains had bust near to our flat and flooded neighbouring streets and the busy Merton High Street. Water was off in 15000 homes and electricity in a few too.

Above is a picture posted by a local resident. Although the water was back on in the afternoon and the road cleared of water, the road its self is still closed to traffic. Returning tonight the area is eerily quiet without the traffic and a thick dust crusts the road and pavement. The heat of the sun has dried out a lot of the flotsum and jetsum from shops and businesses. There are big piles of cardboard and discarded signs and newspaper stands at the side of our street.

Glasgow

Jase and I arrived in a humid and hazy Glasgow on Friday night. Our hotel was right next to the exhibition centre and auditorium on the river. Te auditorium has a distinctive shape like an armadillo. But like many river / dockland redevelopments it is a bit of a ghost town when there isn't an exhibition or concert on. We resisted going on an adventure to find a chippy nearer to town and ate at the hotel.

On Saturday we went shopping and Jase managed to upgrade his iPhone and I bought a couple of books. I had completed a 2 and a half mile run that morning in the hotel gym so I was starving and I had crepe with chili beef for lunch. We both decided that next time we would go back to Edinburgh. Not that I don't like Glasgow (I wouldn't dream of speaking for Jase) but I just prefer Edinburgh.

Jase had a haggis supper on Saturday night but the chippy had run out of haggis after Jase' s and they didn't have any sausage or pies or anything that looked appetising so I just had chips. When we got back from eating chips by the river I took the photos from our bedroom window.

It was all very uneventful until Sunday...

Brighton

I went to Brighton today with David. It was a lovely day not too hot and not too busy in Brighton. David is off to the South of France this week so wanted to get a taste of the Riviera, apparently Nice is very similar to Brighton. (well it has a pebbly beach!)

We kicked off the day with a huge veggie breakfast (well I did anyway.) The sea gull doesn't look too impressed with the idea of a veggie breakfast - he's looking for fish and chips.

I made sure I called into the Sussex in the City shop, which sells jams, preserves, chutneys cheese, biscuits and wine all sourced from Sussex. We discovered that the shop is closing this week but the good news is their produce will be available online. We then had a nice sun bathe on the beach in stripy deck chairs and watched the brave hardy types swimming in the sea.

We then enjoyed a glass of champagne on the Terrace Bar over looking the beach and the pier. After a walk and having our palms read by Professor Mirza (very entertaining,) we went to a lovely fish restaurant for posh fish and chips. (Well David getting into the mood for Nice had lobster thermidor.)

We then made our way home on the train and at the station from our train window I noticed this fantastic pillar which I think sums up Brighton!

Dr Horrible's sing a long blog

A project Joss Whedon worked on during the writers strike last year. Click on the link above and it will take you to the website where you can watch the episodes for free for a limited time only. After that you can download it from iTunes. Lots of fun!

World's oldest blogger dies

I read earlier this week about Olive Riley a 108 year old Australian woman who was the world's oldest blogger until she died at the weekend. Her blog is fascinating full of video clips as well as interviews with her and her family and her recollections of the 20th century. Olive was born in 1889 in a village with a wonderfully Australian name of Broken Hill. You can see her blog (or blob as she seems to call it) here

Quiet week

It's been a quiet week, there was another Gay Pride reception on Monday very informative and lots of fun. I ended up dancing to the Scissor Sisters in GAY Bar. Then on Tuesday I met up with an old colleague from the DRC which was really nice. I have been training for my race, I got thoroughly soaked on Wednesday running round and round the recreation ground in monsoon like conditions! It's been quiet other than that!

Rain break

Well it's raining and the men's final at Wimbledon has been suspended, so I have popped some cornish pasties in the oven and I am waiting for them to cook. I've had a lovely week off work Wimbledon was great, I got some good running training in, read a couple of books and had a lovely day out in London with my Mum yesterday. Work looms tomorrow but I am trying not to think about it too much.

I got an email from an old friend from Doncaster (who now lives in Scotland) and that sparked me to ask her about some of the old gang we knew from the YMCA in Doncaster in the early 90s. She was able to let me know about some of the old characters and that really cheered me up. One of our friends who was never seen out of a track suit and spent all her spare time hill walking and being very "outdoorsy" got married in 2004 wearing a white tracksuit and walking boots on top of a hill, that all of the guests, as well as bride and groom, had to hike up! Fantastic! On the London Eye yesterday we met a couple who were returning to the eye a year after getting hitched on top of the wheel. So unusual wedding venues have been a theme this weekend what with the news story about the couple who got married in a Dundee Sainsbury's (one of Jase's friends works there.)

London Eye again

This time with my Mum! We had a fabulous time but I'll write more later after the Dr Who finale!

London Pride Reception

Last night I attended the Mayor of London Gay Pride reception at City Hall, It is a reception I have attended for the past 5 years. The first couple of years I was working at the reception as I was still working at City Hall, but the last few years I have been invited as a guest. Of course this year was the first reception with Boris Johnson as Mayor.

Here is a picture of him and Ben Somerskill of Stonewall (Ben is the one speaking next to the sign language interpreter.)

I suppose Boris' speech wasn't a surprise, he started by saying he hoped he didn't make any mistakes during the speech! The biggest cheer was when he mentioned his predecessor Ken Livingstone. He announced that he was going to get the Police to seriously tackle homophobic hate crime which is good. Boris also spoke about the achieved vision of a "Carnival London" this is something good for London apparently. A carnival, hmmmm? A multi coloured, all singing, all dancing, all performing show of a city with no real substance if you scratch the surface you discover a rather sinister collection of rogues running the carnival. That's what the phrase carnival London makes me think of, and actually I can see that fits perfectly for a Boris Johnson lead London!

The reception its self was well run and the food was inspired - fish and chips and ice cream! Perfect for the evening of the hottest day so far this year! There did seem to be less people at the reception this year. I did discover some good news which was that the Liberty Festival will be going ahead this year! Liberty is the disability arts festival which I organised back in 2003 for European Year of Disabled People. The festival was so successful it became an annual event and this will be the 6th Liberty!

Revelers at City Hall, with rainbow banner and Tower Bridge