Clapton Pond Blog

Lea Jam

From the Times:

Five minutes from the traffic jams, takeaway chains and crowded pavements of Clapton, in east London, you can slip through a small gate onto the banks of the Lea and feel you’re out in the country. Along a cobbled path are moored a dozen old-fashioned barges, and the only sounds are of water lapping gently at their sides and birds twittering in the trees. Unless, that is, you arrive on a rehearsal night.

Technical point: aren't those "barges" really called "longboats"*? Please advise. Then, read on.

*Update, 1/6/09: I meant "narrowboats". Put it down to stress. 

Another Blue Academy

It looked worryingly like a bunch of giant, unvarnished crates until recently. But now, 15 months after receiving planning permission, the City of London KPMG Academy has turned blue - just like all Hackney's other academies. There still looks to be a bit of work to do before it opens in September, mind. 

Running Sore

Well, that was a long blog hiatus. It wasn't planned but just sort of crept up on me, what with the G20 policing stuff and other Boris business keeping me extremely busy elsewhere. I wish my reactivation wasn't a moany one, but I'm just back from the Kings Hall fitness centre - positively fragrant, I am - and sadly must report that the persistent treadmill injury list is even longer than usual. Of the eight machines in the middle of the gym, only four were working and two of those "temporarily" out of use were the newer models. What is the problem? Why are thee things so often crocked? At this rate I'm going start bringing my own screwdriver.