Paul in London

Saturday night I caught the play Some Girl(s) at the Gielgud Theatre that stars David Schwimmer. I was a bit wary of a star vehicle but I had heard that it was funny, it was written by Neil LaBute and Catherine Tate also featured in it. The premise was simple, a man about to get married looks up some old girlfriends that he thought he did wrong to say sorry and make amends with them before moving on. This could potentially be quite an interesting premise but as the play moved on I realised that I knew far more interesting people than the four people on stage and I wondered about these people around me tittering away at the scenarios dished up on stage (then again it was a Friends audience so they probably found this cutting edge satire)... My mind couldn't stop wondering thinking about real-life substitutes for what was on stage. Most recently I know F who is dating two men. One night she calls man #2 and gets a woman who tells her that she has the wrong number. This is the sam...

Scenes from Harrods Saturday 16:30. The last day of the Harrods sale brought all the punters out for an extra 20% off. A wanted to get some more dinner plates, but not these ones after I suggested that they looked like you could get them at John Lewis . He settled for something much smarter. Later I bought a couple of shirts, so a sensible round of shopping was had by all. It was actually the first time I set foot in Harrods, so A was keen to give me the grand tour (but I declined the offer to see the Dodi and Di memorial ). While it is a tacky Egyptian bazaar with clothes, crockery, this and that piled up on top of each other in no real sense of logic or organisation, it still does have a certain charm about it... Still as one sees the fading grandeur of the building and the cracked and dirty tiles in the food hall, it seems like there is a (very) small part of English shopping history that is slowly decaying away... And nobody really seems to notice as they snap up the Harrods bags...

Scenes from inside WC1 Thursday 06:46: Early morning cloud completely concealed the BT Tower from view.  

News: Another day, another suspect package There is no benefit in staying back working late. I found this out tonight when the high street was closed off due to a suspect package found near the tube station. It turned out to be nothing and the main street has just now reopened. Its just another day of heightened state of alert where every package and every passenger is suspect. Actually dealing with suspect passengers is easy now... You just get up and move to another carriage. I didn't think I would see this but I saw it on the Victoria line when a drunk man asleep across several seats was causing a little alarm to other passengers, so they got up and moved. Personally drunk men flailing about didn't strike me as likely terrorists. Tonight as the Victoria line was suspended due to more security alerts this meant I took to walking on foot from Brixton to Stockwell. Along the way I noticed the terrorist safe house in Blair House that was raided overnight and the impromptu memor...

Scenes from Bloomsbury St - Bloomsbury 21:39. The weather this week has been cool rainy and wet. Given the long period of dry weather the rain seems almost out of place... Now where did I leave my umbrella? 

Travel advice in London... Originally uploaded by Pauly_ . Also doing the rounds today on email... A message board purportedly from Notting Hill tube station this week... It reads: Please do not run on the platforms or concourses. Especially if you are carrying a rucksack, wearing a big coat or look a bit foreign. This notice is for your own safety. Thank you. (If you don't believe it, clicking the photo will enlargen it)

Scenes from Torrington Place, Bloomsbury Sunday 15:34 - On a traffic divider a debate written in permanent felt pen takes place about the pros and cons of the Islamic faith. A tell-tale sign of ones proximity to a university campus if there ever was one... 

News Etc Ted Heath was buried today . I recall Monty Python's quiz joke about Ted, "Edward Heath is a what?". The answer was "a bachelor" which still gets laughs since it is still the euphemism bandied about. The big news today was be on the lookout for bombers with delta containers made in India . These tupperware rip-offs are only sold in 100 stores in the UK. I suggested to A he should do a stocktake of his plasticware and he advised that all containers were present and accounted for. Personally, I don't have any... And as the inquest opened today into the death of the man who was shot eight times at Stockwell tube, there are unconfirmed reports that t-shirts around London have started to appear with the slogan "Don't shoot, I'm not Brazilian"...