Complicated lenten counting

I have tried to approach lent with commitment and discipline, after all if you don't then what's the point of observing it? But I have to admit somewhere in there is a flourish of my old charismatic evangelical distaste of all things law abiding (in the spiritual sense, if you get my drift). So a day has slipped here and there and I've had to play catch up occasionally. I can tell you that on more than one occasion my brain has felt pretty bamboozled by the whole 'which day of Lent is it?' question. I've been counting, recounting, marking days off in my diary, checking the number of photos, recounting, wondering which day lent is actually sposed to end etc etc. Gimme Advent any time for a nice easy countdown to religious festival formula. Anyway, today's one of those days when, even though it is bloomin' one o'clock in the morning I will still post these two pics.

Fanstastic fun in the blossom along our street. Usually it quickly turns brown and mushy, but the lack of rain means that it was swirling all over the place in the wind, helped along by 3 small lovelies.

Then a wonderful array of the crockery we're unpacking from boxes and trying to fit back into our kitchen cupboards. I think Neil was a bit horrified to see the quantity of jugs I have accumalted over the years. Whoops. I think I probably should have given them up for lent.

Occupying the steps?

Now that they've moved on one bunch of people cluttering up the steps of St Paul's, another lot have moved in. I know who I'd prefer to have in my back yard... Seems more than a little ironic that this new bunch seem to be in the main swanky looking banker types spilling out from super duper Paternoster Square buildings. What have we come to??

Bikes in Broadway Market

Ye hay! The Boris Bikes have come to our part of town. Not quite on the doorstep, but Hackney nevertheless. The guys putting them in told me they'd had someone come up and say 'These? In Hackney? I'll give 'em a couple of days before they're all in the canal'! But several weeks later and they're all there still. And, apart from a marked increased in wobbly bikers who don't know what they're doing forming a public hazard on the tow path down on the canal, all seems to be well. Certainly the guys who were trying them out today seemed to be impressed at the very limits to which they could be pushed (I didn't stop around to see if they were going to investigate their floating properties). Very exciting. Now all I have to do is get my electric key replaced - it fell to pieces and the chip fell out - so I can enjoy them in my back yard.

Only in Hackney!

Yesterday in Westfield I noticed, for the first time, a 'Brow Bar'. Yes, a 'Nail Bar' but for eyebrows and eyelashes. I have never once in my life seen the need for false eyelashes (OK there was  brief moment on my 40th that I thought I might put them on for a laugh, I had even bought a pair impulsively having seen them at the supermarket - I kid you not - but to be honest it was hard enough getting my party clothes and make up on, what with everything else, and I just couldn't be bothered!) but judging from some of the mums in the playground, and the Brow Bar in Westfield, and this beauty parked along a street next to ours, I guess others have a different view.

Olympification part 2

I went to Westfield today to take something back for my eldest (yeah, yeah, any excuse!). The shopping city leaves me feeling slightly sweaty and nervous, even downright shocked to be honest. I am not sure whether it's the enormity, the newness of it all - including touch screen i-pad like information points, the numbers of people in it all the time or what, but I just feel a bit more shocked by it than other Cathedrals to Mammon which grace our shores. But the chance to get an eyeful of those fabulous Olympic buildings is enough to make me want to make regular trips. This is a glimpse of the basket ball building. If you can call it that. We call it the marshmallow, in the rather recent trend to name buildings in our great Capital after bits of food. I love it! Don't know why. But the big white squadgy sweet, especially lit up by the royal blue of a spring sky gets my vote. Not the absolute best in the Park, but just another great aspect of the exciting urban landscape that will be the Olympics.




I couldn't even get out of the car to photograph it, such is the security, but someone obviously has - and taken it from the landscaped side to boot. It's off an Australia website with the tag 'The ugliest building in the world'. No accounting for taste eh??