25 Apr 07 The Spitz
If the Spitz gets the boot, what would be put in its place?
The neighbourhood is getting stranger every day. The Spitz is a local restaurant, gallery and music venue at Spitalfields Market that has been an institution for arts and culture for 12 years (though I can only speak for nearly 18 months of that time), and it’s now under threat of closure.
The facts are that The Spitz has been given six months notice to quit its current site in Old Spitalfields Market by its landlords Ballymore Properties. This means in a worst case scenario The Spitz would cease to exist by the end of September this year.
Currently there’s a Save the Spitz campaign underway, though few details are offered to explain what’s going on.
18 Apr 07 The journey
Travel is something I’ve developed patience for in London. Going places by tube can be time-consuming, but I no longer consider distance as a factor in deciding if I want to go someplace. If the tube stops near a destination then there’s no good excuse whatsoever not to go. I will happily, and now regularly do, travel across the city to meet someone or just go see something that I haven’t seen before.
Walking is also just a requirement of living in a large urban environment. A quick walk ‘around the corner’ might take 15 minutes, while a ‘long’ walk in the city is likely to take two hours or more. Walking a different way each time out is a fun way to discover such an intricately laid-out city, and to realise new things about what’s familiar in the well-trod routes. I appreciate seeing unexpected views of the architectural landscape from snickleways, and take pictures of them with my mind (or often in camera too).
Patience is easy to cultivate when you keep your eyes and mind open, with interest. The journey is the destination.
17 Apr 07 Arrivals
Visitor season is in full swing now at our flat! The Aerobed hasn’t even been packed up, it’s still in the livingroom awaiting the next guest arrival :D
This is a picture of a military helicopter flying around Stonehenge. It’s incredible that this ancient monument has highways on two sides about a hundred feet away maybe. Fields of sheep make up the other nearby space.
Some of you may have visited the blog last week and discovered strange-looking advertisements in its place. That’s because I accidently let my domain name expire and nearly lost it after four years! I’m pleased to have been able to sort out the problem within a day or so, and things move along.
4 Apr 07 Sofa shopping
Is this sofa smiling? I can’t tell what’s up with it.
Since we’ll need furniture when we move I’ve checked out what’s available online. For some reason I am anti-Ikea when it comes to buying a sofa, especially those of the fabric-covered variety. There’s not much out there for reasonably priced and lovely sofas, but maybe one of these two will do the trick. I prefer the second plum-coloured one, which means I have super taste (it’s the cheaper one).
Oh yeah… and not having a car in London makes Ikea shopping rather difficult, and I hear their delivery service is a shambles. Capitalists with vans have solved that problem! Like this one called Unflatpack that shops for your items and delivers - they’ll even assemble furniture for you for £30/hr. We plan to get a little wild with Billy, creating an entire wall of shelving, but we’ll piece it together on our own.
GET FED: