party on the pitch, leyton orient fc

The Girl’s verdict of Party On The Pitch

As part of the ‘Olympics celebrations’ (don’t get me started), Waltham Forest are holding The Big 6 – six free events put on for residents of the borough.  There has already been Winter Wonderland and fireworks for New Year, neither of which were of mch interest to us.

Party On The Pitch was a pop concert, free to all residents, with tickets allocated by lottery.  I thought The Girl might like it (being 12 and all that), so applied for tickets early on.  I have to admit, as the acts were annonced, my internal raver kept dying a little inside – Alexandra Burke, The Saturday, Scouting for Girls and finally Cover Drive.

I didn’t get tickets originally, but a friend did and ‘donated’ his to us (as he was off to watch West Ham) which gained us entry to the Gallery and free drinks and nibbles — which certainly cheered my mood up (It was nice to jump the long queues afetr we got off the bus too!)

I have to say, from our vantage point, the crowd seemed a little sparse, which was disappointing, as people shouldn’t really apply for these tickets if they have no intention of showing up – a good, solid crowd certainly adds to any artist’s performance!

I missed who the ‘compere’ for the day was, but I have to say, he was actually really good for the family-friendly audience.  Just the right amount of cheese and forced jollity without being too over the top.

First on stage was local girl, Mizz Camara – at just 15 she can play 6 instruments apparently, and although she only sang two songs (and played the trumpet too!) she had a very strong voice and is certainly someone to watch for the future – yay for homgrown talent

Next up were Bajan group Cover Drive, who I had never heard of, but The Girl seemed to know most of their songs and hapily sang along and danced.  They weren’t too bad at all – easy listening, a bit souly, but what impressed me most was the amazing midriff of the lead singer – my God she was totally ripped! Anyway, The Girl would now like their album, and I have no issues with that at all.

The Saturdays

We were then entertained by Kaleidisco, a rather odd five-piece act from Ibiza.  They consisted of a guy on bongos/drums, a girl on saxophone, a couple of neon-clad dancers, seemingly improvising to the backdrop of dance tracks spun by their DJ.  A rather odd choice for the venue, I must say.  However, I can imagine that they are qite effective in-situ in a proper club.

The slightly strange Kaleidisco

Then came what I was dreading most, and unfortunately my fears were completely with reason.  The Saturdays were down to four (apparently they’re usually five) as one of them has just had a baby.  They looked very good – all jewelled corsets, hot pants or short skirts and high high heels, perfectly made-up and coiffed.

I didn’t know any of their songs, but that hadn’t really made a difference with the first two acts.  They really weren’t my kind of thing obviously, but personally, I don’t really think that they ‘brought it’.  They seemed very much to be going through the motions, with no real stage presence, chemistry or character.  I guess all I have in my mind to compare them to is Girls Aloud or The Spice Girls, and although I’ve not seen either of them live, I have seen clips of shows etc, and The Saturdays were nowhere near the same league.

In fact, well before the end of their set, The Girl said she should probably go to the loo as we knew Unity UK were going to be on at some stage, and she was worried they would be straight after The Saturdays and we’d miss them!

Unity UK’s short performance was brilliant!

She was right too – even though they only did a short piece, local dance group Unity UK were definitely the highlight for me.  The Girl had wanted them to win Got To Dance – but they got pretty close!  Do check out their audition if you haven’t seen them before.

Alexandra Burke and hot dancer #2

Alexandra Burke was up next – and I at least recognised a couple of her songs, and The Girl was happily singing along, and dancing – as were a few of her friends that we bumped into…they had dance routines and everything (oh to be that age again!).  She certainly seemed to have a LOT more stage presence than The Saturdays, and a pretty impressive voice too, which I wasn’t really expecting.  She also had two VERY hot dancers, that got a whoop out of The Girl when they took their tops off.  A whoops off of lots of women and girls actually (and a fair number of men).

Then was the longest wait of the day (which to be completely honest wasn’t that long a wait at all!) and then Scouting For Girls came on stage.  At this point, I had managed to convince the steward that seeing as many people had just left (probably to get younger kids home and miss the rush), that there should be no problem with letting us onto the pitch where we managed to join one of my friends.

he’s so luverlee, he’s so luverlee…

I have to say, I always thought Roy was quite cute, and the songs were always proper pop sing-a-longy type creations.  Good for what they were meant to be, and as it was the end of a pretty nice day with The Girl behaving herself, and the band were obviously well up for it, it was quite easy to give into the pop-pressure and sing along to songs which I didn’t realise I knew the words to!

They were a good finale to a very nice free day.

Happy scouted girls!

I have just asked The Girl for a quick review:  The highlight for her was also Scouting For Girls as it really made her want to dance around, low point was not being allowed onto the pitch until right near the end.  She also loved singing along to Halleluljah and other songs with Alexandra Burke.

Now, I am especially looking forward to Urban Classic which I have managed to get tickets for.  Far more my kind of thing!

Just for balance, I bumped into the infamous Walthamstow Scene whilst there, and you should read his writeup too, as I think he has very different opinions to my own

tasty fried wedding

This wonderfully designed poster is up in my local chicken shop, that gourmet extravaganza ‘Tasty Chicken ‘N’ Pizza’.

What more could you want at your wedding?

I have many friends who are trying to convince me (VERY unsuccessfully) to get married in Vegas – but why the hell would I do that when I could have such amazing catering for my wedding right in Walthamstow?!

(Note:  I realise it’s probably just a poster for a separate catering business, but come on – it’s amusing!!)

The wonderful Tasty Chicken 'N' Pizza in all its glory. Honestly - they're absolutely fine as chicken shops go - The Girl likes them!

the moving toyshop – edmund crispin

The Moving Toyshop

My nan had mentioned this book for me to suggest to the E17 Book Club.  We actually had about 5 picks to choose from for our Feb/March read, but I was lucky enough to have this one win when put to the vote!

The Moving Toyshop was first published in 1945, but is actually set in 1938 – mainly in Oxford.  Before reading I didn’t realise it was part of a series (apparently number three in the Gervase Fen set according to Goodreads).

Richard Cadogan, poet and would-be bon-vivant travels from London on search of  ‘an adventure’. That night he finds the body of an elderly woman in an Oxford toyshop, and is then hit on the head. When he comes to, he finds that the toyshop has disappeared and been replaced with a grocery store.

What comes after this is a delightful mix of detective and mystery and an absolutely glorious old English ‘caper’ of a story.

There is something delightfully whimsical and comforting about posh men in suits and hats rushing around towns like Oxford getting into scrapes, saying ‘jolly’ and ‘golly’ a lot and ending up in the most surreal situations.

And the language used is fantastic – so archaic, along with casual sexism which becomes rather endearing when it’s put into context (this IS 1938 after all!).  There were so many parts of this book that had me literally laughing out loud.  I will share a few, just to whet your appetite.

“…piled high like the gimcrack splendours of a proletarian heaven.” – even my kindle dodn’t know what ‘gimcrack ‘was!

“‘Look’, he said. ‘It will be better if we both talk about the same subject at the same time. This isn’t a Chekov play’.”

“There was no ring on her left gand, and the flatness of her breats had already suggested that she was unmarried.” – now this one confuses me, was she unmarried as she had flat breasts, or because she was not likely to have had children thus creating larger breasts?

I also loved the list of shops on the High Street as they were running – it shows a far different view than what we have now:  “A chemist’s and a draper’s. Farther to teh right, a butcher, a baker, a stationery shop; and to the left, a corn merchant, a hat shop, and another chemist…”

One of my favourite lines was a description of Gervase Fen himself: “He had on an enormous raincoat and carried an extraordinary hat.”  nothing else was said about the hat – I have no idea why it was so extraordinary!  This made me giggle

And another description, this time of a lawyer: “He looked a trifle seedy, and one suspected that his professional abilities were mediocre.”

Oh I could carry on at greta length quoting parts that I really loved – Fen suggesting to Crispin (the author!) names for his next novel; the Benny Hill style chase through Oxford, and the fact that the girl had to sit outside the baths (as it was male only0 while they carried on chasing each other in there; the fact that Fen had ‘once made love to a girl over there, but not very well’; the aniquated names they call each other and the description of The Colossal (one of the smallest and most disreputable cinemas ever contrived).

But instead, I am just going to suggest you read it. It wont take you very long and will definitely put a smile on even the sternest of faces!

world book night & good omens

Last night I went to Walthamstow Library to pick up my box of 24 copies of Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.  This was the book that was my first choice to give out for World Book Night on Monday (23rd April).

World Book Night is “…a celebration of reading and books which sees tens of thousands of passionate volunteers gift books in their communities to share their love of reading.”   1,000,000 books are given out in total – half of these are donated directly to hospitals, prisons and care homes, and the other half go voluntary ‘Givers’ to distribute in their communities.

The process started some months ago when the public was given their chance to vote for their favourite books.  This went down to a shortlist of 100, and then the 25 books with the most votes became this year’s giveaways.

Anywone is able to apply to be a Giver, and is asked to make a first, second and third choice of book that they would like to give, who they would give it to (or where they would hand out) and why they have chosen that book.  WBN say “The greatest reading journeys start when you put a book in to someone’s hand and say ‘this one’s amazing, you have to read it’.”

The 25 books chosen this year were:

• Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
• The Player of Games – Iain M. Banks
• Sleepyhead – Mark Billingham
• Notes from a Small Island – Bill Bryson
• The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho
• The Take – Martina Cole
• Harlequin – Bernard Cornwell
• Someone Like You – Roald Dahl
• A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
• Room – Emma Donoghue
• Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier
• The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
• Misery – Stephen King
• The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic – Sophie Kinsella
• Small Island – Andrea Levy
• Let the Right One In – John Ajvide Lindqvist
• The Road – Cormac McCarthy
• The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
• The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox – Maggie O’Farrell
• The Damned Utd – David Peace
• Good Omens – Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
• How I Live Now – Meg Rosoff
• Touching The Void – Joe Simpson
• I Capture the Castle – Dodie Smith
• The Book Thief – Markus Zusak

I have only read 12 of these, which is probably what the point of world Book Night is!  I have already been given a copy of Someone Like You by Roald Dahl, which I must remember to reigster!

I gave away 10 copies last night at the E17 Supper Club, and will be giving the rest away over at The Rose & Crown on Monday.

Everyone needs to read Good Omens – I can’t believe it is more than 21 years old now.  I remember the first time I read it, I thought it was the funniest thing I had EVER read…and yet there’s a really great story running through it about nurture vs nature – can someone be BORN evil, or are they moulded that way by experience.  a bit like We Need To Talk About Kevin, but hilarious.  And good!

If anyone in Walthamstow does actually want a copy, let me know, and I’ll keep you one – and if anyone reading this HAS got one, remember to register your copy on the World Book Night site, and then pass it on to someone else to read once you’ve finished it.

I will be reading it again and reviewing it as it has been YEARS since I last picked up my wonderful copy that my New Zealand penfriend had signed by Terry Pratchett for me!

secondhand book sale – rose & crown, e17

OK – totally out of character for my blog, but this is a shameless plug for a used book sale to raise money for the RNIB that a friend of mine is organising as part of their ‘Read for RNIB‘ campaign.

This is going to take place in the Red Room at Ye Olde Rose & Crown pub on Tuesday 11th October from 5pm – 9pm.  If you’re in or around Walthamstow and love reading, please do come along and show your support (I will be helping out on the night – whta more incentive do you need?!)

the world through my eyes (part 2)

Further to my previous post, here is another time that my (lack of) height always becomes an issue – in an ‘audience’.

This is my view of David Lammy MP last night at the House of Commons.

Just a teeny-weeny bit of David Lammy was visible to me!

Luckily, his voice carried incredibly well – which is good, because he had some good stuff to say about the riots, what had obviously happened in his constituency, some lovely words about what we had all achieved etc.

By the time Yvette Cooper came to speak to us, I had managed to move forward.  But to be quite honest, I think I would’ve preferred to hear David Lammy speak a bit more

I could see almost ALL of Yvette Cooper! (ooer)

(PS – although this was in the House of Commons, I do NOT want to get into any political discussion (hate it!) this is purely meant to be about my literal view point, not my political one!)

indian supper club with alex & salim, e17

Alex (and Salim) made us feel SO welcome in their home!

I have been extremely slack about updating recently – mainly because I have had SO much to post about – and therefore been out when I should’ve been posting!

Last week, The Man and myself were lucky enough to find out about a new pop-up Indian Supper Club in Walthamstow.  It was the very first one, and although we thought all the places would have been filled, Alex managed to squeeze as in and we happily trotted down the road to a brand new experience!

Unbeknown to me, as it was their very first try, they had actually had all the places snapped up by people that they already knew – so we were ‘the outsiders’!  But considering my usual ‘Stranger Danger’ worries, this was not a problem in the slightest.  We were made to feel so welcome in their beautiful home, and Alex and Salim were so relaxed, that we forgot that we hadn’t known them for years!

We were served a gorgeous homemade lemon & mint soft drink on arrival, along with little homemade bags of indian-spiced popcorn, which was so simple but totally more-ish.  We were then given an indian twist on a mojito, which was wonderful and refreshing – and WAY too easy to go down.

On top of the very easy conversation, we were invited into the kitchen where Salim invited us to taste all of the dishes, and prod his bread dough that was on one side rising.

After trying the dishes, actually sitting down to eat couldn’t come around fast enough!  With a table of 6, one of 4 and two of 2, me and The Man got our own table, but the other diners were turning around to chat to us, giving it a real party feel

Our pretty table, mojitos and the peanut masala

We had a gorgeous, fresh peanut masala and crackers on the table ready to tuck into which was fantastic.  More mojitos were sent our way, and then a bottle of wine appeared.  We felt very looked after!

The main  meal consisted of cumin rice, a huge fresh salad, chicken dopiaza, moong dal and muttar paneer.  I have always kept away from paneer in restaurants as I’d had it a couple of times and it hadn’t been quite ‘right’ for me.  however, when I’d tasted Salim’s ‘cheesey peas’ straight out of the saucepan, it was like a completely different experience.

Everything was absolutely wonderful, light but rich in flavour, perfectly spiced, and all the individual elements complimented each other whilst tasting very different.  And it was all accompanied by Salim’s freshly made bread which we were in the perfect vantage spot to witness him preparing and cooking!

Don't be fooled - we ate about five times this amount!

Although our initial portions were of a fair size, we didn’t realise that the seemingly never-ending bowls would be brought around continuously!  We were STUFFED by the end of it (I had MANY heaps of muttar paneer!).

When I say stuffed, we did indeed manage to fit in our chocolate and cardamon mousse with a coffee cream made by Alex, which was also very scrummy.  After finishing with freshly brewed coffee (The Man) and fresh mint tea (me), we rolled ourselves out of our chairs to walk home.

They don’t present a bill (!) but have a discreet contribution box with a suggested £20/head to cover their costs – more than reasonable, I think you’ll agree.

They are going to be running the supper club on the first Friday of every month, and me and a few friends have already booked ourselves in for the next one (yes, I have been spreading the word!) which will be concentrating on street food. I plan not to eat for a week beforehand!

If you are interested you can see their website or contact Alex on Twitter.

Salim is also available for cookery lessons – I am planning to send The Man to learn bread, kebabs, dal and of course the muttar paneer!

Can’t wait to post about it again next month!

e17 art trail (part 2)

Further to my very brief forray onto the E17 Art Trail on Friday, on Saturday I decided to go down to the library to hear some of the artists talking about the works that they have on display there.

We started off with the Knit A Year project, and saw Jay actually finish her last stitches.

The final stitches are cast

You can see her blog here, capturing a year in her life with lots of photos of the yarn she’s used and where she did her knitting. We all wondered what she was going to do next. “Sit down and have a cup of tea”.

Next we moved on to Peter Kyte’s display of photos of Walthamstow Market as he explained the world he sees through his camera lens and gave a talk about how he frames and structures his photos.

Peter Kyte shows his thought on producing an interesting photo

Next we went out into the foyer where Ron Bowman is exhibiting his latest watercolours showcasing “London: It’s places and people”. I stupidly didn’t take any photos of the woork he has on display – but do go and have a look!

Ron gives us a quick demonstration

Even better, he gave us some tips and a quick demonstration, saying “Absolutely anyone can do watercolours – you should give it a try!”.  I beg to differ, I have no creative ability at all!

Next we went to the stairs where Mark Burton and Katherine Green are showing photos of local voluntary and community organisations “Voluntary Action in Waltham Forest“.  I have to admit, this was the exhibition I had mainly wanted to hear the talk for.  I had seen some of Mark’s work before and was once again looking forward to hearing his thoughts and experiences as hearing him talk adds SO much to the actual photos.

Katherine Green talks us through her photos

I had already seen some of Katherine’s work hanging in the Waltham Forest Credit Union and she really manages to get in amongst her subjects and capture some amazing very ‘personal’ shots.

Mark Burton tells the story behind his photos

What I found particularly interesting was that Mark’s photos were about a special day arranged by the Women’s Interfaith Network where women of different faiths spent a day visiting each other’s places of worship.  This was an amazing story, and people kept pointing out how unusual it was to have so many people of different faiths and backgrounds together in that way – and yet as I looked at everyone sitting on the stairs listening, there was such a wide range of races, colours and (obviously) faiths sitting together praising the work!

After that, we went upstairs to where Amanda Doidge was showing some of her experimental ceramic work – this was a piece about Socrates – and it was fantastic hearing her thinking behind the piece, and the process that she went through to create it.

Amanda Doidge explaining her Socrates piece

It really brought the whole thing to life – and even sparked a discussion about Socrates!

Then we were back downstairs to hear from Eliana Parra Rodriguez and her love of colour which has moved her to create some gorgeous colourful abstract pieces.

Eliana and a couple of her pieces

It was great to hear her explain so enthusiastically about how colour moves her, and how the colours she uses are dictated by her moods.

We ended at the bottom of the stairs where we saw the works of Tayyaba (I hope I have spelled her name correctly!  I will have to check today), and her mix of paintings from her home and from the UK – showing great contrasts.

Tabbyah explains her processes and feelings behind her work

It was a great way to spend more than 2 hours, and I think it added so much to our appreciation of the work and experience.  This is one of the greatest things about the Art Trail – it isn’t just about goign around and looking at a few pictures and things, it’s a chance to actually meet the creative people in our community. Loving it!  Now that The Girl is back home, we will be goign around a few places today!

e17 art trail (part 1)

Arty farty Stow!

As I mentioned before, this is going to be my first year going around the E17 Art Trail.  I am very excited about this, although the sheer volume of exhibits is a little daunting!  Where do I start.

It actually officially started yesterday and will go on until Sunday – but yesterday I was at work all day and then out in the evening (I will post about the fabulousness of THAT later!).  However, I still managed to see a couple of things – that’s the beauty of the art trail, if you live in Walthamstow, then there is always something you can pop to see just around the corner!

On my way to work, I managed to see most of the Poetry Trail.  This really is ingenious — in Walthamstow, it is often a point of annoyance that there are simply SO many estate agents on Hoe Street – particularly between the station and the top of the market.  The Poetry Trail though has embarced this fact, and the majority of the estate agents have handed over prime ‘selling space’ for the period – disaplying poems in some of the holders where they usually show the house particulars in the window!

Poems in Churchills, Central & Strettons!

How cool is that?  I think it’s a brilliant idea – and fairplay to the estate agents – I think there are about 10 of them taking part.  There are poems by members of the Forest Poets, but also by 6 and 7 year olds from local primary schools.  And I have to say, THIS one was my absolute favourite.

Love this poem!

And then on my way home, I went into Le Delice to check out Martin’s underwater photos as I had been really looking forward to seeing them!  They are out the back in the ‘Moroccan Room’, so make sure that you go back there if you’re out and about. (I’m actually posting this in Delice now, and a couple oand their two young kids have just gone back there and the kids LOVED them!!)

Award-winning photos

They're looking great in-situ!

I am not sure what else I am going to do today – I want to go to Emma & Steve‘s launch party, and I am thinking of going to the talk in the library this afternoon.  It’s all just so busy, and I have had an exceptionally long, tiring week!  Wish me luck!!

walthamstow short film club

Last night's running order

A couple of years ago, me & a couple of mates went to three or four screenings of short films at The Rose & Crown pub.  We saw some really great films there, and we were quite disappointed when the monthly event just seemed to stop (we were never quite sure why).

A couple of weeks ago, I happened to read this blog post by someone I know and realised that they were once again short films (I have to admit, I don’t know whether it’s the same people hosting it or not – it could well be someone completely different).

So, me and a friend went along last night to see what it was like.

Instead of being in the old, sticky, stinky room above the pub that has been done up as a theatre (where I have seen a few things), it is now held in The Red Room (which is no longer red) which is nice enough, but a bit noisy and very small.  That helped make it feel rather crowded, even though there were less than 20 of us!

Most of the people there were actually involved in the production of the various films, so I did make a point of saying that we would be their audience

As before, there was a huge variety of films, but I have to say the quality was far better than it used to be!

There was animation,  humour, documentary, drama, arty – a whole range of different styles…definitely something for everyone.  We got to vote for our favourite at the end and both my friend and I discovered that we’d voted for the same one – The Cable, a documentary piece about a 50 year old zip wire in Colombia 1300ft over the Rio Negro used by villagers that takes them 27-30 seconds to complete and saves them walking 2 hours to the next town.

It was amazing – and happened to have been produced by someone who I met while volunteering at the Respite Centre!  You can see more on the wire here, including a documentary that was NOWHERE near as good as the one we saw last night, but unfortunately I don’t have a link for

At £3.50 entry including a bag of popcorn and/or sweets and a chance to meet the film-makers, it was a brilliant evening’s entertainment.  I can’t wait for the next one, and just hope it doesn’t get TOO crowded!