Happy Go Lucky

‘Do I have to book a ticket for the 8.45 ‘Happy-Go-Lucky’ performance tonight?
I asked the box offfice manager at the Chelsea Cinema.
‘We’ve got 679 tickets available.’ she said humourlessly.
‘So that’ll be a no then?’ I said.
‘Yes’ she said flatly…..
So I’ll toddle off later on and sit in an empty cinema watching Mike Leighs new film.

Last night I went to the Barbican.
I watched four Fijian women splash about in a lot of water, singing , dancing, and getting very wet for 70 minutes. A slice of life from the South Pacific, all part of the BITE festival,nibbles of life from all over the World, via the medium of dance, music and theatre.
I bumped into a woman I hadn’t seen for 16 years. We hugged each other and looked at our hairlines to see just how old we had become.
The Barbican is a very sweet trip from my flat.
Down past Lambeth Bridge, where all the political reporters position their tripods, BIg Ben in the background. I love the road leading up to the bridge. I have no idea why, but my stomach lurches as I approach the crennelated walls on the bend. I think it may be the sight of The London Eye, the wideness of the road, the prospect of entering the centre of London, but I always think it must be some kind of lost memory, from a past life!, that is triggered.
Round he new Hotel, in the middle of the roundabout, Waterloo Station on my right, over the Imax Cinema roundabout, down past LWT, past Blackfriars Bridge, left onto Southwark Bridge, yummy with its green and pink peeled pain, right past Old Billingsgate Fish Market, towards Tower Bridge, into Aldgate, past my Nans rebuilt tenement block, left towards the City and before you know it there’s the Barbican, All underground car-parks and flats with enough hanging gardens to lend them a Babylonian vibe.
I parked the car for a fiver, went down to the PIT, collected my press tickets, then took the lift up to The Waterside Cafe.
Even though people were reclining on the waters edge, it was frigging freezing.
The City of London Girls school stands right on the bank of the water feature, ducks pootle past. As I ate my very posh Pot Noodle I pondered on the placement of the school. If I had had ducks paddling past my form room I may well have ended up in the hallowed towers of Oxbridge as it was I ended up in the hanted house of Anna Pavlova in Golders Green. Not that I didn’t have a good time but I do think a beautiful school makes for a beautiful mind, much nicer for both teacher and pupil don’t you think?.
On the show today we talked teachers and teaching. I cannot believe that three sets of parent removed their children from a Rudolph Steiner school in Kent, because a teacher let them have a puff of a fag to teach them the physiology of smoking on their lungs.
Its no wonder teachers feel the need to strike if unconscious natives cant let them teach inspirationally.
More power to their chalky elbows.
Konnie Huq came into the stuido to drum up trade for her new BBC3 show. She is small and sweet and very pretty, let alone sharp and atrticulate, at 32 she looked not a day over 18…
We moved onto Westminster Abbey where they have installed a Braille guide so that Blind people can enjoy a tour of the grand church, touching as they go.
Then Katie, from Ealing, called in. The hairs stood up on my arms as Katie praised Louis Braille for his brilliant invention. Next year we will all be celebrating him. Katie oozed humility and generosity as she shared her love of music – learnt through Braille -her patient wait for a new Guide Dog, and the places that visually impaired people can visit. The last e-mail came from a man, who was facing blindness through Diabetes, after listening to Katie he felt less frightened and more empowered.
Aint LBC wonderful?
I am spittting feathers over the lying toad who wont take responsilbity for driving into me. But I am going to read his name out on air and then he’ll correspond you watch!
I met up with Bee and her Boy, in Clapham Junction, and bought her loads of organic nuts and bits in ‘Fresh and Wild’, then back here for a hard boiled egg, a hug with husband and a call to the cinema and I believe that’s where we came in.
I’m off now for a walk to the Kings Road, in the sunshine, a cup of coffee in Picassos, a wander up to Sloane Square, to stretch my legs, and then a settle down for Mr. Leighs film.
Thank you all for being such spiffing communicators.
That’s it for tonight tarra, and cusoon.