Sunday was the 11th Walthamstow Wassail: online this year, like so many other events and traditions that break up the year and help give life some narrative and meaning. Conspiracy theorists view Covid as an agent of state control, and vaccines as containing microchips designed by billionaires to make the masses more pliant. These peopleContinue reading “Walthamstow Wassail 2021”
Category Archives: Diary
Walking to Sainsbury’s
After a few days of not leaving the house, I went to the Sainsbury’s on the other side of town. A big box by the dual carriageway [1], the trip to this mahoosive shop felt a bit like a holiday, or at least a day trip. Such are the narrowing of one’s expectations during aContinue reading “Walking to Sainsbury’s”
Review: Coco The Clown, by himself, Nicolai Poliakoff
“I didn’t know, during this happy summer of 1914, what life had in store for me. I didn’t know that this little circus clown was to be caught up in great events he couldn’t understand”. Nicolai Poliakoff, better known as Coco the Clown, lived a preposterously eventful life. Born in Dvinsk, a small town inContinue reading “Review: Coco The Clown, by himself, Nicolai Poliakoff”
Christmas cards 2020
I never used to send Christmas cards. They seemed one of those weird doomed middle class traditions, where you go to quite a lot of effort to say nothing at all. Then I realised this was, like a lot of my pretentions, self-defeating nonsense. I sent a bunch this year, though still not as manyContinue reading “Christmas cards 2020”
Ramsgate International Hoverport
Hovercrafts exist in the British postwar imagination alongside Concorde and the Post Office Tower as avatars of the rapidly arriving future. These ludicrous metal beasts, dreamed up by some archetypal crackpot inventor, brought Europe closer, but were also a symbol of British exceptionalism. Sure, the French have some nice wines, but do they have planesContinue reading “Ramsgate International Hoverport”
As rare as shark’s teeth
There’s a girl I know who rolls her eyes at the Gok Wan Acolytes / Underneath her bed there lies a collection of ammonites Fix it so she dreams of me, Half Man Half Biscuit A Sunday morning spent seeking fossils at low tide. A quick cycle along the front, past dogs and families andContinue reading “As rare as shark’s teeth”
Whitstable
Today I took a break from seeking jobs and gazing into the fire to walk along the coast to Whitstable and back. The path was busy with dog walkers and cyclists, so I stuck to the shore line and stared at the egrets and oystercatchers. Whitstable itself isn’t designed for cars, but is inundated withContinue reading “Whitstable”
Cycling in the dark: an appreciation
Yesterday some new super-powerful front lights arrived, to replace the ones lost in the midst of one of my many bouts of forgetfulness. I’m now back to my preferred set up of two back lights – one flashing, one constant – and two front lights. The beefier of the two front ones is only requiredContinue reading “Cycling in the dark: an appreciation”
Cliffe
On Friday I went to the estuary to meet a dog. We met at the village of Cliffe, which feels like a village at the end of the world. The road ends at the church, and then there’s mud, and marsh, and channels of water leading down to the grey old Thames. But humans haveContinue reading “Cliffe”
Reculver
Today’s bike jaunt took me to the edge of Thanet, and the remains of the Roman fort at the head of the Wantsum Channel [1]. It’s a lovely spot. It reminds me of Dunwich, with its ruined monastery and the sense that this place used to be more important than it now is. And thisContinue reading “Reculver”
