Category: Oval

All the things I love are shut

Here are some of them:

Ronnie Scott’s Club
606 Club
Tate Britain
My gym
Franco Manca (Victoria Branch)
Brixton Ritzy
Banh Banh (Brixton)
Natural History Museum
Clapham Picture House
St John’s Smith Square

Don’t worry this is no anti-lockdown, anti-vax, Bill Gates and 5G Networks control the world rant, it’s just me listing and missing what I love. Make no mistake I’ll be rolling up my sleeve to receive a vaccine as soon as one is on offer.

I’ve lived in central London for most of my life because I love it. I’ve always felt sorry for those who were forced to live in town, hated it, but had to do so because of their job. Then I’d say well at least you’ve got live music, theatre, museums to which many would reply well I don’t go to them much anyway. Now I hear several of my friends and colleagues are moving out of town because they’re working from home and will be for the foreseeable future. And those who had three-hour daily commutes are spared that grind and can remain rural. Covid has put rocket boosters on remote working and we’ll be living with the consequences for many years, many of which are not all bad.

As for me, will I be moving to the countryside? Not a chance. I like to take trips out of town on a weekend but come Sunday evening it’s time to head back to civilisation. The problem is of course that civilisation as I know and like it is pretty much closed.

First bike ride of 2021

I’ve just come back from my first bike ride of 2021. A 17K spin around Pimlico, Victoria, Hyde Park, Oxford Street, Chancery Lane, the City, over Blackfriars Bridge and home to the Oval. I’ve never seen London so empty, which is a big fat lie as it was just as empty in March when I was doing the same ride albeit in more pleasant early Spring weather. Despite there being virtually no cars, I still manged to give a Black Cab driver apoplexy with him shaking his fist at me for reasons I’m a little hazy about. One of the things he probably hates are all the new cycle lanes that have popped up all over town. They are a godsend to us two wheelers and another unexpected Covid bonus, though that’s not a view often shared by the four-wheel community. You can now pedal safely up Park Lane which used to feel like joining an F1 starting grid.

Low-traffic neighbourhood

We now live in a new low-traffic neighbourhood which means our streets have become virtually pedestrianised. I see families with very young kids pedalling around in safety in a way that could never have happened before. Once again car drivers don’t much like the look of LTNs, but to me they are another bit of lockdown luck. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not anti-car, I don’t own one, but we use Zip cars on a regular basis.

I always detest January and February; they seem to holdout so little chance for fun. This year more so than ever. Mrs Preen is engaged in dry January which always seems such a poor month to stay off the booze. I’ll be endeavouring not to drink during the week but may get on the outside of the good stuff over the weekend.

This seems rather a bleak post to start the New year, but with vaccines ready to be jabbed into our arms things will hopefully improve and perhaps 2021 will be a Happy New Year even if it takes a little time for the happiness to arrive. I’m sat here waiting for London to wake up once again.

Thames path to Putney

A Little London Lockdown 25.5.20

I took the bike to Putney along the Thames path.
Just started using the Strava app, thanks to Gyuri.
23K 1 hour 50 mins
Lots of toddlers and families about so low speed.
It’s not a clear run to Putney, you have to get off at certain points and use the road, but it was a beautiful day (26c). Sun, sun, sun.
It felt a bit like the High Line in NY, but somehow lower.
Lots of little gardens along the way.
On the road near Albert Bridge I saw a young couple riding a Vespa
And I thought…
It’s a beautiful sunny bank holiday, you’re young, you own a Vespa and you’ve got your bird on the back.
Does life get sweeter?

Michael Caine owns a flat in that building. Not many people know that. Well he used to, we did and interview with him there in 1999.

Battersea Powerstation. Who’s going to buy all these flats?

Covent Garden

Lockdown Lowdown 23.5.20

SPAD Dominic Cummings in big trouble for breaking lockdown.
Toy MPs piling in on his behalf, presumably told to do so by No10.
Wonder if it’s worth burning so much political capital on him, just a day after screeching U-turn by PM on NHS staff having to pay for their care.
Beautiful bank holiday weekend.
C-19 infections way down in London.
Lockdown seems to be breaking down, hope this doesn’t mean a second spike.
Roads in our neighbourhood being closed to through traffic.
Very happy about this, but let’s see how it works out.
Yesterday changed an inner tube on my bike. #quietlyproud. Haven’t done that since I was 15, don’t think we had YouTube videos then.
Helped pack up the firm’s offices in Holborn.
Homeworker bee from now on.

Took another 8am Saturday morning trundle. This time to Covent Garden.

Doesn’t look much does it? But in the 80s this was the Zanzibar Club where a bunch of us fools had more fun than was strictly necessary.

Robin’s nest

When we returned from living in Asia, we brought a Spirit House with us. It’s a bit of a leap for hard-headed Westerners, but most Asians believe we live alongside spirits, many of whom are malevolent. To combat these pesky intruders, houses are built on different levels as apparently ghosts aren’t good at stairs. And outside just about every residence and business you’ll find a Spirit House, neatly kept and with enticing food and drink, all in an effort to tempt the spirits out of your house and into their own cosy home.

I’m afraid we haven’t kept our Spirit House as neatly as we might, as we don’t seem to have spirits; only mice. The little wooden structure lay dormant until a few weeks ago when a pair of Robins started building a nest inside.

We watched as they brought sticks and grass to make a perfect cup-shaped nest. Then bewilderingly they vanished. We figured the location was too close to our back door and our comings and goings had persuaded them to find lodging elsewhere.

But suddenly they were back bearing grubs and worms, which could mean only one thing. It’s very dark inside the Spirit House, but Mrs Preen swears she could see three tiny beaks.

I suppose we are typical soppy Brit animal lovers, but we felt blessed to have them and would sit around watching the parents bring tasty tit-bits to the little ‘uns. A moments research revealed that once the eggs hatch there are only fifteen days before the chicks fly the nest so it wouldn’t be long before they were gone.

Last Sunday morning, at around 8.30, I was in bed sound asleep when suddenly Mrs Preen burst into our bedroom in floods of tears.

She had let our dog Rusty out into the garden and was pottering about in the kitchen when she heard the Robins tweeting in alarm and saw them dive bombing our dog. They were sending up distress flares.

Rusty had caught a fledgling and killed it. Bucket can’t catch a damn thing, she half-heartedly goes after squirrels and gives our mice a wide berth, but a little bird, probably on its first flight, just couldn’t get away in time.

I love our dog and I know nature is red in tooth and claw, but the death of that little bird left us feeling forlorn. It may be ridiculously sentimental, but we felt we had a duty of care to the Robin family and we flunked it.