Quack

A few weeks ago I stumbled across the London Wetland Centre near Barnes; I say stumbled… I was on one of those exploratory walks which just happened to take me further than I’d intended when I set out several hours earlier.

Nestled in one of the Thames’ west London bulges this former grey field sight now teams with birdlife with visitors flocking to hide out with binoculars, cameras and children of varying levels of interest and energy getting in a flap. Ironically it sits just up the road from Heathrow and therefore right below the frequently migrating man-made birds: their booming squark one of the few reminders that you’re still in London. Aside from them it really is surprinsingly serene.

Sadly my stumbling was too late in the day to have a proper gander at the place but I dare say I’ll make a deliberate attempt to get back to nature, just a few hundred yards from the Hammersmith flyover, sometime next year.

(Anti) American Grafitti

It’s unusual to see any grafitti other than tags scarred into the landscape these days: the occasional mural although most of those seem to be sponsored by some desperate local council or multinational attempting a limp reach out to the kids and to stem the tide of freelance etchings and taggings.

Political graffiti is fairly rare though: ironic since graffiti’s main role throughout the world has been for freedom of expression and covert denouncements of totallitarian regimes rather than to massage over-inflated egos in their over-inflated puffa jackets. It’s sort of akin to the sad IT consultant types doing paintballing on a Sunday to latch onto a feel of combat on our (largely) war-free streets.

Anyhow, came across this on the train the other night; whatever your views of US & UK presence in Iraq I couldn’t help a wry smile.

Battersea Park fireworks

Running late

My thanks to the eagle-eyed reader who spotted that the time in London was apparently ahead of the rest of the country. Appropriate perhaps but I’ve now fixed the errant clock on the right by doing a little HTML hack myself as it’s obviously not intelligent enough to make the leap from BST to GMT itself.

Either that or someone slept in like they did at Ceefax. Now no-one knows how to programme the video as they’ve got used to it happening automatically.

The battle of London Bridge

I don’t do mornings. At least not wake-up 5.30s for 3 hour commute mornings. I still have terrified flashbacks to when I performed end-customer logistics for the daily dissemination of portable news repositories. The whole notion of alarm clocks is, well, just wrong as one reader might put it.

Today I had to work in Hastings which, by road or rail, is a hefty trek. Going by rail involved changing in London of course and being packed in with my commuting comrades. Or at least it would have done if it had been an hour later: when I started at 6.30 the train was as empty as other readers like their cinemas.

By London Bridge and 7.30 things had got decidedly busier. (7.30, I should still be asleep). Ah, London Bridge again. I haven’t commuted out of London Bridge in over 2 years but how familiar it felt. Like visiting an old friend, able to pick up right where you left off, but determined not to overstay your welcome or the extent of your ability to reminisce.

Sure enough the troops left their transports and dutifully marched in close formation in matching uniform. Sure enough here I was going against the tide. As much as I dislike an AM commute into the big smoke there’s a part of me that would like to join this band of brothers, that I’m retreating from the true London experience by constantly going in the opposite direction.

Looking around from my platform vantage point it’s incredible how much the landscape is changing. The ‘MoreLondon‘ development on the south bank between London Bridge and Tower Bridge continues to swell: a Hilton hotel soon joins the corporate headquarters of large accountancy firms and City Hall.

Interest in the vista is complemented by the usual musical coincidences. Shuffle on the iPod must be more intelligent than mere random. Coming up with the theme for this blog entry Frankie’s ‘Two Tribes’ starts rousingly. As we’re reminded that 24 hour surveillance is in operation a Hard-Fi track starts up (‘Stars of CCTV‘ is the album for anyone not on the ball).

An hour and a half later I arrive at ‘Battle‘. And that’s really the station and town name. Sadly no time to take in any sights or explore, I’m stuck with a laptop keeping my legs warm, excel spreadsheets to baffle me and a mobile phone clamped to my ear.