Round London Cafes

[cjmattys]

Just a bit of slightly yikes! self-publishing

On the edge of a wood stood the blue house. All round the house were birch trees and at the bottom of the sloping lawn was a pond.   The child went to the house four times each year.  In the winter, she was soothed to sleep by the mournful, breathy call of the owls in the eaves and the birch trees, just barely breaking the quiet of frozen air and snow-smothered ground. Spring-time was when…

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November 13 14 15 16 2014 - Fire and Water

November 13 14 15 16 2014 – Fire and Water

Near Stove Disaster Narrowly Averted!!

Okay, so, Facebook friends, skip this bit.   I know you’ve heard this tedious tale already, but I have some other non-facebook using friends as well.

I could hear ominous noises – tappings, clickings.  I looked outside – checking for swans, geese or ducks pecking at the side of the boat – none.  Then I noticed next door neighbour starting up his motorbike…

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019 Blog - London, Family and Art

I’ve done more London-ing in the past week than I have for ages – just at a time when I’m about to stop living in the centre of everything!  The first outing was to Dulwich Picture Gallery for the Eric Ravilious exhibition.  I have long loved his work and am ever hopeful of delving through a stack of old plates in an innocent junk shop/charity shop (ie one where there is not a bunch of astute…

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[cjmattys]

018 Blog - Blog Break!

018 Blog – Blog Break!

It’s been such a long Blog Break – it feels like going back to school after the long summer break – takes time to get back in the rhythm.

Can I please start with an open letter to Total Jobs and Reed?

Dear people at Total Jobs and Reed

A while back I had a slight inclination to consider some very part time work in order to continue to fund my boating lifestyle – you probably don’t need to know…

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017 Blog - Nuts in May

I was reminded today of some nonsense I wrote on the online scrabble site – there is the option to add some – what they call (Thanks Miranda) “finger notes” rather oddly and slightly rudely!! Another player referred to one of them whilst chatting to me during a game.  Considering what I’ve I just been and gone and done, they are rather apt.  I was playing around with Mike Leigh film titles –…

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[cjmattys]

Okehampton, Camborne, Newlyn, Penzance, Wadebridge, Bath, Peterborough!!

So, I’ve travelled far in the past couple of weeks – exploring my possible futures.   Where shall I go?  Where shall I be?  What am I looking for?  Possibly I’m always half looking for the past – I went to Slovenia and saw how Nan tried to recreate her childhood environment in her adult Western Australian life.  I went to Kythera and saw how my father tried to recreate his childhood environment…

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[cjmattys]

Stepping away from the cliff edge

I was running headlong towards the cliff edge and luckily a little prejudice in the back of my mind about living in a park home, along with a dose of intolerance of synthetic smells (room “fresheners”) pulled me back down to the ground with a bump, just before I went over.

Everything that had looked wonderful at first sight, began to look a little less rosy at second sight.  I suppose I began to…

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[cjmattys]

Leaving London in a Hurry

Well, back on 25 March, less than two weeks ago, I looked at a mobile home in Norfolk.  I’m going to look at it again next Wednesday, 8th April 2015.  In between I seem to have lived a lifetime of emotions – nervousness, excitement, fear, anxiety, stress, anticipation, happiness, sadness.  I put in a conditional offer, and waited.  Rejected.

Here’s one thing I love about Norfolk:

Meanwhile, I’m…

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[cjmattys]

Leaving London?

Not so sure what that opening image was – but I like it!

It’s not so much that I’ve got tired of London.  Rather, I think that London is getting near to wringing me out, bleeding me dry, squeezing me until the pips squeak, opening up a chute down which all my meagre stash of money is disappearing.  It may be time to depart to East Anglian sunsets.

More than 48 years in London, 23 of which…

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[cjmattys]

Not London

Perhaps this blog should just be called “Days Out”.  Although I suppose a thing to do in London from time to time might be to step back and away from London to better see why I never tire of the place.

Cheaper living is beckoning.  Granted, for London flat dwellers (renters), my monthly costs are relatively low, but I own my actual dwelling, and what I’m paying for each month is somewhere just…

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[cjmattys]

Alpine Bed and Kitchen (Galley) Floor

Okay, it wasn’t in the “One thing a day to do in London” book, but sometimes the best is right there, in our own back yard – especially in springtime.  I’m sure it’s not just the greenery and birdery coming alive out there after winter.  I’m sure this happens to us as well.  I want to get up earlier in the morning, be outside more, do stuff.  This, then, is my justification for blogging in the…

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[cjmattys]

Murder, Mystery and Forensics

In a Nutshell and no water in sight except the New River seen momentarily from the top of the 253 bus

You know how it is when you live in London for a long time.  In the early days, you go everywhere, experience everything – galleries, concerts, cinema, museums.  You are in and of London.  You are awash with it.  As time goes by perhaps you begin to take it all a bit for granted.  You promise…

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Mucking Creek Mark II

So all this time I’ve been harbouring a false memory of “The Load of Unicorn”.   I reckon that in my head I’ve mixed up this story and my image of Magwitch and Pip struggling upriver in a small boat.  I wonder though, should I now re-read Great Expectations to be sure of this memory as well?

I thought I had a memory of a desperate chase by dinghy along the Thames and up Mucking Creek, by Bendy…

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Finally made it to Mucking Creek

Heading out east again.  This journey started over 30 years ago, when the children and I read “The Load of Unicorn” – Cynthia Harnett.  I can’t remember now whether I read it to them or we all read it to ourselves in turn, but I do remember being particularly intrigued with Mucking Creek in Essex.  I can’t in detail remember what happens up Mucking Creek – I think there’s a boat journey down the…

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[cjmattys]

Bermondsey, Rotherhithe, Deptford, but not The Fighting Temeraire

By the water again.  I had thought about making the trip to Mucking Creek this week, but this day’s (Thursday) pall of greyness is not what I want for that trip.  So today, it’s Bermondsey/Rotherhithe and the place where Turner is said to have made his sketch for The Fighting Temeraire – though I’m not too sure how anyone knows!

I decided to take the route to the Rotherhithe Tunnel – I’m sure…

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[cjmattys]

Birds, Barges and Boys in Cars

Oh what a glorious day out – down the A13, heading East, towards Tilbury, Dagenham, Purfleet and Rainham – such grand views across industrial London along the way on the elevated sections – sky-sculpting electricity pylons, sky-climbing cranes, and smoke-belching chimneys – I love every single bit of it.

Turn right at Tank Hill Road, says Google Maps and we do and we wind along through low scrub…

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[cjmattys]

Pre-Blog Blog

I’m supposed to be going on my blog trip today – but it’s being put off until tomorrow – and the planned trip might also change, since it’s an outdoor one and tomorrow’s windchill is supposed to be brutal!

Anyway, I’m a bit fired up with creative writing class homework – during wakeful 4.00 am period Wednesday morning, scribbled away furiously in bed and then set to typing in the morning.

Our…

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