London's Got Soul
So I'm about 5 weeks behind on everything and indeed it is ironic that today is the day I was about to begin blogging on my recent London trip. As I wait for a number of friends to respond to my increasingly frantic attempts to reach them (members of my family are all safe and a cousin is somehow trying to make it home), the phone system can't cope and, as in 2001, I'm relying on the more resilient internet, email and instant messaging and the web.
London has got more soul than any town I've lived in. Friends and family alike have remarked on how refreshed I was when I returned from that 4 day expedition on that Bank Holiday weekend at the end of May. There's a reason that the Olympics are going to be held there (despite the evident payola deployed by Chirac on behalf of Paris' bid) and a reason why the nihilists have now attacked it. But in talking with family members and listening to the news, it is clear that Londoners are stoic types. I too lived under the depredations of the IRA in the 80s and 90s so instead of wallowing in the undoubted horror of the moment, I'm going to be celebrating the flavour of the place. Expect more on London in the next couple of weeks in what I'm calling the London's Got Soul Trilogy.
The only loot I managed to get from the 4 day trip:
- A stack of newspapers (and tabloids for my cousins)
- 3 packets of tea (Tetleys, Twinings English Breakfast and Earl Grey)
- 10 novels including the latest from Tom Sharpe
- 1 Noir magazine for The Girlfriend
- 1 Drifter chocolate bar
- 1 Lion chocolate bar
- £10 at the National Lottery, my first ever win
- 283 photos
- Friends, family and a lot of soul
The London's Got Soul Trilogy
I'll update this spot with the blog journalism but for now you can peruse the photographic record:
- London 2005, A Family Odyssey
- Catford Bridge
South London's got soul. - London Eye
The best £25 my mum and I have spent in a long while. - London Bridge Clink
This became part of The London Bombings Collection
File under: London, England, soul, life, friends, family, flavour, travel, journalism, immigration, culture, toli
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