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I am always rattling on about The Bishopsgate Singers, who meet at the Bishopsgate Institute every Monday night and are like my homies, as it is the only choir that I started from scratch, and did  not inherit.  We are in one hall, learning pop and world by ear, while the  massively marvellous sounding Royal Philharmonic Choir are learning whizzy classical works in the the other…now that would be a fine collaboration, but I feel it may never ever ever happen ( ha ha…I  also feel a challenge coming on!) I thought it was time to put you out of your misery and show you a picture of the front of the Bishopsgate Institute, neatly tucked in between Pizza Express and  shirt shop, so it would be easy to miss. There now is an entrance round the corner in Brushfield Street, next to Starbucks, and a lovely cafe. The Building is listed, built in the 1890’s and goes back for miles. It has 2 enormous halls, a library and lots of smaller spaces, the list of course and concerts they run is exciting and  varied. A quick picture of the church and the goat in Brushfield Street, just as the sun was going down.

SONG OF THE DAY Cheryl Cole -Promise This

Ok the secret is out…I love this video..it is so beautifully styled.  I love the  shadowy dancing boys and the bare tree silhouette on CC’s dress and in the distance.  Written by Priscilla Renea Hamilton from the US ( 23 years old!). As a songwriter she has written for several big singers and has a couple of albums out too.

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I remember someone saying this to me. I also recall the comedian Dylan Moran  (a favourite of mine) in his tip top show  ‘Black Books’ making the rapid retort when another character told him they  loved him. “Baked me a cake then”

Some call it ‘active’ rather than  ’emotional’ love, the sort of thing you need to be a good parent or partner for instance. I must say I find it funny that some people in my life can say  ‘I love you’ and then do nothing that would seem to show it. It seems a bit of a waste, if it is just in your heart and mind…..or is it??????discuss.

SONG OF THE DAY – If I knew you were coming I’d have baked a cake -Eileen Barton

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Here is Mr P. (still suffering from all that dental work) and I enjoying a bowl of porridge this morning – though you would not know from our expressions! Feeling a little like we are posing  in a Dutch Masterpiece. Yes…Welcome to our humble abode. The camera was balancing on the sink when I took this. I was thinking about home as we wandered around Holloway today, to see if I could (unsuccessfully) buy some cheap snow boots for the impending Siberian weather we are  supposedly expecting in the next little while.  As I snapped a few pictures I thought about the last 30 years I have been wandering round the Nags Head, how it has changed, and how it has not. I also thought about when you live up close to something for long enough you sort of stop seeing the ‘warts and all’, unless you have something to change your perspective, like a camera or a visitor. A camera is a bit like a visitor.  I get that feeling when being behind my titchy beaten up old camera that I am  seeing the world though an extra set of eyes.

So here is Holloway, the Nag’s Head Holloway. The stuff dreams are made of. Lots of people around where I live never go to Holloway as they find it too ‘real’ and a bit too grubby. Lots of people who live on top of the hill in Highgate, drive down to  the Waitrose car park but will never set foot in Holloway itself. I like it. Though I think it is time it had another little face lift  or a little bit of a wash and brush up, especially the Nag’s Head Market, as it is a long time since they knocked down the old houses at the back and created the ‘shopping arcade’ and the ‘new’ Safeway which became Morrisons.  There used to be a pub called the Nag’s Head, but it has turned into a really ugly amusement arcade. YUk, so much for history and tradition.

Holloway has got a lot going for it and too much to do in one daily post, but in a nut shell….. It has some amazing food shops,  fruit and veg shops, a great factory shoe shop, some good places to have tea, my favourite being Amici and Croissant D’or, the one in Holloway Road near the Odeon Cinema ( best and cheapest cakes and pastries in Norf Landan) fab pound shops   (Mr P. trying on some 3D glasses in the tidiest pound shop in the world  – Poundland, where we bought veg and fruit seeds and iris bulbs today all for           (under) a pound…yer know! James Selby’s department store, a Waitrose,  trees and that’s just the beginning. It lies on the A1,  has a clan of  hardened drinkers who seems to have a  license to sit outside the factory shoe shop, scaring all the locals, so there is no-where for anyone to sit who is waiting for a bus, it is very noisy and polluted…but like they say it is HOME.

SONG OF THE DAY- Tam Linn -Steely Span

A bit of finery for today.

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This post is all about the  British Telephone Kiosk. Yup – I am seriously scraping the bottom of the post-u-lar ( I know I know!) barrel. I am spending my saturday evening posting about blinking telephone kiosks. Could my life get any more exotic or exciting? I took a couple of photos of 2 kiosks at Highbury Corner yesterday, and then found this sight where you can buy a telephone kiosk for the grounds of your mansion for up to £8500 – bargain! If I suddenly had a windfall, I might buy one.

I did not know that some kiosks on London streets are actually listed buildings. That is funny. I suppose they could be considered to be buildings of sorts. In the old days I remember sheltering from the rain in one, and I am aware that many gentlemen think that they are also latrines as well as communication boxes. One could become a bit of a geek about the different types of box, try and get all the K8’s listed………go on really wonderful sites about interesting facts about the telephone box bla bla bla.

SONG OF THE DAY -Blondie -Hanging on the Telephone

It was a ruse so I could post this song….love it!