Sunday, October 21, 2012
Fallen
Off to London today to see what was cooking at http://www.languageshowconnect.co.uk/ at Olympia, a place I have not visited for a very long time.
On the first leg from Vauxhall Cross to Abingdon Villas (in Kensington), I carelessly broke the 30 minute Bullingdon barrier, costing me an additional £1, so maybe I had better start wearing a wrist watch again so that I can keep a better eye on the time. I then thought to visit St. Mary Abbots church (who is St. Mary Abbot?) but was caught out by getting there a few minutes before they started a Choral Matins, something I do not think one comes across very often. I find from their site (http://smanews.weebly.com/) that they also offer services using the Common Prayer Book, Sung Eucharist and Taizé Prayer, which last does not look very Common Prayer Book at all. But I do not suppose that any of it is to be found anywhere near Epsom and it would probably have been interesting inside, so I must go back on a week day and hope that the place is open. Second leg back towards Olympia no problem.
Onto to the show where there was plenty to interest, despite the rather loud background music. Two stalls offering tuition in British Sign Language, one offering Esperanto and lots offering Spanish. One could, for example, learn Spanish in the shadow of the Incas in Guatemala. I might even take up the offer of access to an online BSL learning package at a modest £14.99 a year (special expo price offer from http://www.signworldlearn.com/). One stall offering jobs for those who could speak appropriate Asian languages in the security service. A lot of youngish people milling about, with a sprinkling of slightly eccentric looking older bodies. I guess I fell into the latter category.
Onto Kensington High Street where I took my first fall, finally getting around to getting a bicycle helmet, in part because most of the people you see cycling around London have them now. Sold a rather more expensive hat than I was expecting at CycleSurgery, a Giro Aeon at near £XXX, but at least it was a good fit. I dare say there was a premium for the location and the helpful staff - but help which one would not have got buying the thing online.
The second fall took place on arrival back at Vauxhall Cross where I was inside the Bullingdon barrier by 1 minute but needed lunch, and for the first time for a long time went into a Prêt, a chain which has always irritated me, perhaps because it is successful and run by a couple of old Harrovians (or some such), but also because of their claims for their sandwiches, which I find tiresome. As I do the inverted snobbery of leaving the accent out of the word 'Prêt'. However, needs must, so today I wound up with a large cup of orange lentil with coconut curry soup with two micro baguettes. The curry was not particularly hot by curry standards, although I would have preferred less hot, but was quite a decent soup nonetheless and the rolls were quite decent rolls, despite their silly packaging. As, I might add, were the rolls in the sandwich bars we used to have in the seventies before they got pushed out of business by the like of Prêt.
And then home to the first flexing of my prize Thornton slide rule for some years. It just happened that when there was a need, it was nearer to hand than the calculator. And quicker for the sort of sum in question.
On the first leg from Vauxhall Cross to Abingdon Villas (in Kensington), I carelessly broke the 30 minute Bullingdon barrier, costing me an additional £1, so maybe I had better start wearing a wrist watch again so that I can keep a better eye on the time. I then thought to visit St. Mary Abbots church (who is St. Mary Abbot?) but was caught out by getting there a few minutes before they started a Choral Matins, something I do not think one comes across very often. I find from their site (http://smanews.weebly.com/) that they also offer services using the Common Prayer Book, Sung Eucharist and Taizé Prayer, which last does not look very Common Prayer Book at all. But I do not suppose that any of it is to be found anywhere near Epsom and it would probably have been interesting inside, so I must go back on a week day and hope that the place is open. Second leg back towards Olympia no problem.
Onto to the show where there was plenty to interest, despite the rather loud background music. Two stalls offering tuition in British Sign Language, one offering Esperanto and lots offering Spanish. One could, for example, learn Spanish in the shadow of the Incas in Guatemala. I might even take up the offer of access to an online BSL learning package at a modest £14.99 a year (special expo price offer from http://www.signworldlearn.com/). One stall offering jobs for those who could speak appropriate Asian languages in the security service. A lot of youngish people milling about, with a sprinkling of slightly eccentric looking older bodies. I guess I fell into the latter category.
Onto Kensington High Street where I took my first fall, finally getting around to getting a bicycle helmet, in part because most of the people you see cycling around London have them now. Sold a rather more expensive hat than I was expecting at CycleSurgery, a Giro Aeon at near £XXX, but at least it was a good fit. I dare say there was a premium for the location and the helpful staff - but help which one would not have got buying the thing online.
The second fall took place on arrival back at Vauxhall Cross where I was inside the Bullingdon barrier by 1 minute but needed lunch, and for the first time for a long time went into a Prêt, a chain which has always irritated me, perhaps because it is successful and run by a couple of old Harrovians (or some such), but also because of their claims for their sandwiches, which I find tiresome. As I do the inverted snobbery of leaving the accent out of the word 'Prêt'. However, needs must, so today I wound up with a large cup of orange lentil with coconut curry soup with two micro baguettes. The curry was not particularly hot by curry standards, although I would have preferred less hot, but was quite a decent soup nonetheless and the rolls were quite decent rolls, despite their silly packaging. As, I might add, were the rolls in the sandwich bars we used to have in the seventies before they got pushed out of business by the like of Prêt.
And then home to the first flexing of my prize Thornton slide rule for some years. It just happened that when there was a need, it was nearer to hand than the calculator. And quicker for the sort of sum in question.
# posted by Jim @ 10:46 AM 
