New Year's Eve

I’ve still got a bad chest, the flower stalk on the orchid died so it will be months before I know what it looks like, but I have started running again. Taking it really slow, but I just couldn’t wait. It’s hard when I’m doing it, but it feels so good when I’ve dragged myself round, that it’s addictive. London Fields is half empty of course. Just a few folks passing through, walking dogs or running like me. And deceptive ground: it looks fine, but I’m coming home with my shoes caked in sticky mud. They’ve re-opened the long-derelict toilets. Good, though it’s a shame they felt the need to paint them brick red all over. Looks OK, but in my opinion the graffiti on them looked better.

Part of the reason I’ve started running again, perhaps a little soon, is it’s New Year. Every year I feel like New Year somehow should set the scene for the year to come. The whole starting as you mean to go on thing. I feel like I should sleep well, wake early, exercise and eat well. If I start positive, happy, organised etc then somehow that will increase my chances of the rest of the year being that way, like some kind of spell. Unfortunately my New Year’s plans are usually incompatible with reality and everyone else’s plans. It seems for most people New Year’s Eve is a time put off everything till tomorrow, get drunk and be loud enough to let everyone know you are ‘having a good time’, even if you won’t remember it yourself the next morning. Many times I’ve started the New Year cursing some neighbour who wants to stay up partying all night, and knowing quite well that New Year’s Eve is the one night of the year when I definitely cannot complain without looking like the biggest party pooper going.

Of course I’ve had my New Year’s Eves out partying too, so I could be accused of being hypocritical. I do see the merits of letting rip every now and again, and I guess it’s a good thing to have it on one agreed night of the year rather than the noisy types taking turns to keep everyone else up. Just I guess there’s no such thing as the perfect night to do it, and I wish for such a thing as perfect soundproofing as well.

I’d be tempted to go join in, but this year I’d like to bring in the New Year with a running event. There’s two main choices. Firstly the Serpentine New Years Day 10k in Hyde Park. It has a reasonably civilized start at 11 am. Unfortunately it also has entry in advance and I missed it. So it looks like a trip to the Bushey Park Time Trial starting at 9 am. Unfortunately that means leaving the house about 6 am to trek right across London. If I manage to drag myself out for it the chances I’ll be doing it on a full night’s sleep are somewhat slim!

Christmas Peasants and Pheasants

Sunday, as planned, I made my way down to Columbia Road for the Flower Market. The weather was misty again, with wet pavements and receding grey-tone distances. Quite dramatic. The market was as manic as expected, with the traders jokingly telling each other off for deafening volume. Cries of ‘two bunches for a fiver’ or ‘two orchids for a fiver’ were everywhere. By the end they were selling Christmas trees for a fiver too. In fact the fiver obsession was a bit annoying as I had about £4.50 on me. There also didn’t seem to be as much range this year as last. I didn’t see any African Violets, and nothing really unusual caught my eye either. Still, I eventually scored two orchids (a mini, and one with flowers only in bud) for £3. I’m awaiting the flowering of the latter with some anticipation. Who knows what it will look like?

I also ran into someone I hadn’t seen for years and we went for a ridiculously priced coffee (£1.20 for a mouthful of espresso?!?), before walking towards home together. Of course you try and sum up all those years in a few sentences, and it made me realise that perhaps the major change in my life is that I’ve taken up fitness in various ways. In the last couple of years I’ve gone from huffing going up stairs to being able to run three miles without stopping. I’m lucky, she has health conditions that make exercise very difficult. We talked about swimming, but both agreed it’s too expensive an option for someone on a low income. A couple of quid doesn’t sound much to most folks, but three times a week can mean that adds up to too much out of a benefit-level income. Haggerston Baths used to have free sessions for the unemployed, something that really would help many people if it could be brought back.

Yesterday was the Christmas shopping dash. Bracing myself for the Dalston crowds with thoughts of the time I got a pheasant for £1.24. I was really fancying pheasant. You see, as you may have gathered by now, I’m not exactly rich. There’s no way I’m spending £20 on a turkey, even if it will do me a week’s worth of meals. So I look for a last minute bargain or two. I hit Dalston Sainsbury’s early. I have it on good authority one Christmas there they had to call the police to a fight over half a cucumber. Even at mid day there were slightly edgy looking crowds hanging around the staff with the reduction guns and some guy trying to get a reduction on a turkey, and getting nowhere. They were already sold out of chickens. I got my basics and headed back out. Sainsbury’s Angel this time. Again no luck on a suitable bit of bird flesh. I did however get myself some lovely reduced-price items including lots of breads, some dressed crab for 50p and lamb burgers with coriander and chili, a real favourite of mine. Result! Unconventional, but lovely Chrissie dinner coming up…. Then I dropped into the nearby Tesco Metro and found them reducing loads of ready meals… more unconventional options, and some for the freezer! Finally I found a shelf of Tesco’s Finest Turkey joints, all ready with stuffing and bits of orange. Reduced from £15 to £3. In budget! I started choosing my prize… and realized that just one was not a Turkey, but a pheasant. Same price reduction too, sitting there waiting for me. So, I’m having pheasant again. Ready stuffed with hedgerow fruits and wrapped in bacon. And my freezer is bulging. I resisted heading back to Dalston for the last minute scrimmage. It may be a yearly event, but my chest infection and my freezer didn’t need it.

This morning I woke to rain tickling the window. A depressing sound to many I know, but I love it. It reminds me of the sound of rain on canvas during camping trips when I was a kid. Going camping and getting rained on is also not a positive to many I know… But it’s the ultimate in relaxation. You’re on holiday, and there’s no pressure to do anything. No-one nagging you to get up and go somewhere. Maybe it will clear up later and you’ll go somewhere fabulous, but no hurry. It’s the contrast too: knowing how horrible it is out there, but you’re curled up warm and cosy in bed. It’s a nice way to be on a Christmas morning.

Hark the Christmas Coughs are Ringing

The plan was that following my couple of weeks thrashing round the streets of Islington I was going to be several pounds lighter, have more endurance and generally be ready to run my little feet off. I was hoping to be able to report here on Christmas lights run past, frosty mornings, and wildlife on my local park ponds. What’s actually happened is that I’ve come down with a nasty virus, and after several days of fever I’ve now got a chest infection. I might not be able to run for weeks and I’m currently recovering at home with a bottle of Potter’s herbal cough remover. Today I was meant to be on a twenty five mile walk along the Thames. Ah well.

A look at the local paper has revealed not a great deal of interest coming up, unless I feel like going for Christmas dinner with one of several Christian groups. I don’t. I’m not visiting my family till after Christmas, but that has its advantages. Means I can buy them all presents in the sales! And I’ll be eating whatever I fancy for Christmas dinner. It may not be the traditional way of doing Christmas but it works for me.

My tips for Christmas include a trip down to Columbia Road tomorrow morning (Sunday 23rd). All the stallholders will be selling Christmas wreaths and gift-suitable pot plants, and come the end of the day there will be some amazing bargains! I’m also hoping to catch the film ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ (Sunday, Film 4, 9 pm to 11.10 pm), which sounds interesting.

Last night I walked round to the local shops in the evening. Everything was a bit misty, as if it couldn’t make its mind up between Christmassy and spooky. Christmas with a chest infection can have its moments.

Free Cycling!

I’m finished with the Islington Kitchen Waste Recycling Campaign! Hopefully people all over the borough have been inspired to scrape their food scraps into their brown bins. Not the most glamorous subject I guess, but I’m going to sort of miss it. Besides getting to meet lots of very diverse people (and their cats and dogs), I had great fun with the team.

Sunday night we went out for a pizza and wine courtesy of our employers. Very nice, and a review of the venue to come!

Going round peoples, houses one thing it’s sad to see is something potentially useful sitting by the rubbish. I remember one particular house had a whole set of beautifully carved furniture out front, all with veneer starting to peel in the rain. I wish I could have told them about the internet network, Freecycle. But those houses never seemed to have anyone coming to the door. Anyway, at least I can tell my readers… I’ve written a review on Qype, click here: http://www.qype.co.uk/place/87119-Hackney-Freecycle-London

Meanwhile the Hackney Empire is mid panto. I realised this when I found myself almost swept away by a tide of exiting school children heading for waiting busses. Dick Whittington is apparently getting fantastic reviews, does not promote itself purely on the latest Big Brother winner, and those kids looked very happy. Sounds like a good choice if you are looking for a panto this year.

Biobags and the Olympic Kitties

Here I am writing my thoughts from East London and I’ve actually been spending rather a lot of time slightly North… I’m currently working for Islington Council as part of a recycling campaign. I’m going door to door encouraging people to put their food scraps in their brown bins and giving them sample corn starch biodegradable bags. I come home with my hands smelling of chip fat from the bags (though I should be clear, since I’m promoting this stuff, that the smell is mild).

People come up with some really lame reasons for not recycling. Such as ‘I don’t want to mess my garden up with all the boxes’ or ‘it’s not practical in a small house like this’ (the latter I can understand from people with tiny flats, but not when the person is standing in the doorway of an obviously rather expensive new build house in an exclusive cul-de-sac). Or ‘it smells’ (wouldn’t it smell in the normal bin?) Of course I have to be polite, but I’d like to point out how lucky they are. I’m not street level, so I don’t get to recycle my kitchen waste. If I had a garden I could compost it myself, but where I am I can’t even do that.

Ultimate jaw dropping argument though has to be the guy who, when I pointed out that we were running out of landfill, replied that we’d have ‘more space for landfill if we didn’t let all the coloured people into the country’. While there may be some truth in his argument, in that less people (of whatever colour) would mean landfill space lasting longer, I think if I have to choose between living next to a landfill or a houseful of ‘coloured’ people I’ll take the people!

Anyway, last week I got soaked in the rain. This week I’m getting frozen. It is giving me opportunities to review cafes for Qype though as our gang of campaigners seem to end up in at least one new one every day. I’ve never drunk so much hot chocolate.

Meanwhile back East the big issue for me right now is the Celia Hammond Animal Trust’s campaign to save feral cats and kittens from being killed in demolition on the site for the 2012 Olympics. Though the ODA (Olympic Delivery Authority) have been making all the right noises in the media, and some cats have been saved, behind the scenes the ODA seem to be dragging their feet. At the start of December they told the Trust they’d talk about access again ‘next year’. This was shortly after they basically delayed the trust getting on the site of a leaving business until a known group of cats, including a pregnant female, had disappeared, fate unknown. Trust workers have qualifications to work on constructions sites, work at night, and establish feeding stations to get cats into safe areas rather than going into unsafe ones. All costs are being covered by the Trust not the ODA.

If you’d like to support the Trust please sign the petition at: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/2012-olympic-site-cats-at-risk-of-starvation-and-death They are nearly up to their target of 10,000 signatures. I hope they’ll get many more. It may not be the biggest issue in the world, but it is one that anyone can do something about very easily.