Dingy Basements, Coffee, Trains...

This week saw in the return to work, the return to college, the return to "normal" life. this whole doing new stuff has gone from being weekly to almost hourly. I must not let it alter me completely, only slightly, and for the better.

I punctured the stress bubble a bit by buying a travel card. I have never done this before, and i dont know why! What a lease of life! I got to college in a record 15 minutes the other morning, which is preferable to the usual hour of mind numbing frustration at traffic and meandering pedestrians. I am yet to decide if this privilege is worth the expense, and anyway, my snot has gone black. I will make a pros and cons list and fathom it out at some point. I feel i have insulted the religion of bus users by breaking the age old mantra buses can be faster... They're just not. At least, not up the Finchley road. My bus route knowledge is still second to none, and long will it remain so as back up for shut down days.

I went to the 100 Club this week, not to see Jazz but to Limelight, the only truly balanced informal classical music night I've come across. The club its self is great, its like a village hall in a dingy basement, all fold out chairs and little candles with light switches on the bottoms, confetti stars on the table. If you don't like Jazz its worth going for a sneak at the graf in the toilets which makes for interesting reading at the very least. For all the photos of famous names on the walls, its not for a minute pretentious. I love that. I know how hard it is to transplant "classical" music into an "informal setting", but limelight really pulled it off. Maybe it was all down to O Duo, who were an immense introduction to the place. They are two super talented percussionists who put together a really great combination of interesting music from all sorts of genres whilst being thoroughly entertaining and not once did their musicianship drop.


Elsewhere in my life my mission to find London's perfect cup of coffee took me to the famous Flat White of Berick St. Its ok, maybe I went at the end of the day and the beans had gone bitter, but I wasnt that impressed. Much better was Scooter Works, a little coffee bar on lower marsh waterloo. Its warm, its comfortable, people in there play scrabble whilst the cats kick the pieces off the board. It has a pink glittery toilet, and a basement which is dusty and full of huge tables and tiny chairs and a projector screened by a dustsheet. It does beer and wine too, and the best bit is its not even a cafe: check the website for that story. The coffee is great, the hot chocolate is like mud-thick and dreamy. Its by my college, i will be back there to chill out.


To do next week: Wellcome collection. Maybe even Whitechapel gallery.
Not to do next week: cry in my room. At all. About anything. Particularly people. You cant trust people. People like coldplay and voted for the Nazis.