Holiday Break, Adventure Boating Hidden Rivers part 2 June 30, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Europe, Flight Schedule, London, Scotland , 5commentsBut this weekend is for costume cutting and we are all girls; pinning, measuring and sewing, lashed on by our two teachers. There is so little time and so much to learn. There are twelve of us from all parts of the country — I came down by bus from Scotland. Only the thirst for knowledge will ever force me to travel that way again, but it’s the cheapest when you’re unemployed. There’s another girl there as skint as I am, Izzie from Oxford. She’s wearing a leather mini-skirt which unzips entirely into shreds and is quite obviously pilfered from some bygone production.
Izzie’s made a special corset for one of our teachers and laces her into it at the end of the day. The peristalsis of sprung steel and canvas half swallows her down and displays a heroine of the belle époque; tiny waist and huge trembling bosom. Shrieks! — Is there a man looking in from across the road? (more…)
Holiday Break, Adventure Boating Hidden Rivers part 1 June 30, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Beach Resorts, London, Motel, Museum, Oceanarium , 4commentsAs I climbed up out of the station the street stretched away uphill, shining under the lights like an old trouser seat. There were houses everywhere and scraggy trees, but I couldn’t see a pub anywhere. Thin drizzle peppered the thirsty pavements and I realised this was a hopeful start; I’d found a real, if repellent, suburb in an elusive city. I was standing in Salusbury Road, in Queen’s Park, in London.
Some of the shadowy nature of London is that one feels it ought to be well known. Anyone who can read can know London; from Dick Whittington to witty Dickens and beyond, every view is veiled with reference. (more…)
