Up the Elephant!!

Wife and kid away in Ireland, nothing to do last Sunday so I decided to check out the 'Carnaval del peublo' in Bermondsey, a Latin American extravanganza!

I walked from London Bridge down towards Elephant & Castle and then down to East Street Market, a traditional London street market, fruit and veg and loads of stalls selling cheap socks, clothes and other poorly made essentials, a dying breed! And then further up Westmoreland Street Market, a throwback to dickensian times, bric-a-brac and nic nacs sold by the poor but cheerful locals, see http://delsarto.wordpress.com/category/il-castello-e-lelefante-elephants-project-and-westmoreland-market/ for some great photos.

From here I walked to Burgess Park for the carnival, which was great, good food, beer and music.

Bored with London, Ha!

The English Swearing Championships

Venue: Metrochef Cafe, Holloway Road
Time: 8:30am

1st participant, old cockney-type geezer "fucking asthma! you don't know what fucking asthma is you cunt!"
Challenger, another old geezer "I,ve got to use three fucking nebulisers"
1st - "I was nearly fucking dead three times, three fucking times", "they told me to stop fucking smoking, but I told them to go and fuck themselves, bunch of cunts"

Thank god for old cockney geezers and cafes!

they're fuckin fairy cakes!!!!

Bloody cupcakes! What's the big thing with cupcakes? We have had fairy cakes for years, every birthday they would be lovingly wheeled out and eagerly devoured, and now they have been re-branded and americanised as 'cup cakes'. They're sold for a bloody fortune in the trendiest places, spitalfields, portobello road et al.

Healthy Eating!!!

Conversation overheard in 'Metrochef Cafe', Holloway Road, 5 women, 4 of them order 'Chicken Burger and Chips' the fifth one "I aint havin chips, they're unhealthy", "can I have a double cheeseburger with no salad, I don't like salad"
It's good to see that the NHS healthy lifestyle campaigns are having an effect!

Time gentlemen please!

Walking from Newington Green up to Stoke Newington one afterenoon a couple of weeks ago, I thought that it might be a nice idea to have a pint or two. I passed six pubs and all of them were closed, none of them opened in the afternoon.

I can only surmise that it is not profitable for them to do so? or that the metrosexual middle-classes deem it too working class to get hammered in the afternoon, unless you're at the riverside in Putney drinking Pimms?

Not only are all the pubs closing down but the ones that have been gentrified don't fuckin open!

What! No British?

Just come back from a family holiday in Estepona, a great spanish seaside town. A brilliant place for relaxing and sauntering, something i'm particularly good at. The town is full of parks and squares, and the old part is very authentic and pretty.

I'm glad to say that it wasn't full off British tourists, it seems to attract the Dutch!

A speciality of the town is 'Fried Fish Malaga Style', which is a great heaving plate of assorted fried fish, squid, octopuss, prawns etc, wonderful!

What a great town.

Walking the River Pinn

The river Pinn runs from Pinner to the Grand Union Canal at Cowley, 12 miles in all. Pinner is classic 'Metroland', a sterile suburban high street and an old village green, church and a couple of 17th C. pubs.

The route from there runs through an amazingly long stretch of interlinked playing fields, meadows and woodland. Parts of the walk are very badly signposted and there are two major diversions, RAF Hillingdon and Brunel University.

We stopped for a pint at the Red Lion Hotel, a splendid looking Fullers pub overlooking Hillingdon Hill. Not a great selection of beers on offer, in fact one of the worst selections i've seen in a while, Carling, Stella, Strongbow, Guinness and three real ales! but then maybe i've been spoiled?

And then on to the finish at Cowley, according to most of the posts on BITE, a chav lager drinking paradise! didn't hang around to find out, got the train to Paddington and had a cheap pint in 'Cads', all the pints are 1.90!!!