Bespangled by Angels

Yesterday I had breakfast in North London with the friend I was staying with. She left the cafe early due to an appointment with the 'nit nurse' so I stayed on. Two women came to share my table one pushing a pink pram with the cutest baby in a pink jumpsuit. I do wish I'd taken a photo.

Other London highlights include:-

Seeing my best friend's feature film at a press screening in Soho.

Visiting Liberty's and soaking up all the yummy goodness - furry chandaliers being a particular highlight.

A late and slow and yummy lunch with best friend at Mildreds.

Being prevented from seeing the Pet Shop Boys videos at the Portrait Gallery due to two middle aged women crowding around the monitor. My other best friend telling me about an embarrasing encouter with Neil Tennant in the ICA with one British Friend and one German Friend accompanying her. The British Friend hissed 'That's Neil Tennant' and the German Friend said, in a very Loud Voice 'Who is Neil Tennant?' (I can't write in the German accent)

Early lunch at Verde - Jeanette Winterson's shop/cafe in Spitalfields. Its almost perfect but needs a fat cat to sleep in a window.

Foyles bookshop has a very nice Jazz cafe with almost reasonable London prices (Charing Cross Road).

Seeing the Indica Gallery in Soho and seeing a mention of it in this essay about YES.

British Library has wonderfully cheap lockers (£1 returnable) 3 excellent free exhibitions. London in maps, the permanent collection (South Polar Times, Magana Carta anyone?) and one on Migrant magazine.

However loved this quote from the small William Blake exhibit.

"He witnessed visions form an early age - he once saw a tree in Peckham filled with angels 'bespangling every bough like stars' - and in his working life wrestled with new ways to portray his complex ideas about the power of imagination, the nature of religion and the shape of society."

@~@~@~@~@

Something else I noticed on this visit to London. Strange moments of care. Often when I come to London I'm struck by anomie, the disconnectedness of it all, but this time I saw French schoolgirls giving up their seat to an elderly woman, people giving directions, and I didn't not feel as pressed and josseled as I normally do.

Train late yesterday - the hail started at Berwick upon Tweed. I could not see it but heard it on the train.