Saturday, 8 May 2010

Doing as I'm told

Doing as I'm told has never come naturally to me.  The minute someone tells me what to do, some recalcitrant part of my brain kicks in and my natural impulse is to do the opposite.  I only have to see a sign saying No Entry, Keep Off The Grass or 50 mph, and I'm ready to break the rules.  My next text message came through and I was all set to mutiny, and it wasn't even lunchtime yet!  Go to Upton Park and visit Queen's Market.....with an internal sigh, I turned away from the prospect of exploring Greenwich Park and set off on my journey to Upton Park in East London - they might sound similar but the word park is about all they have in common!








Some observations on the way.....


Overheard on the train - Ticket inspector to smartly dressed young Asian man caught fare-dodging: What's your Christian name? - Mohammed. And your last name? - Ali.

Going through the ticket hall at Bow Road tube station, I witnessed a group of 6 ticket inspectors going through the turnstiles - one of them had his Oyster card refused. I wondered idly what the collective noun for a group of ticket inspectors would be. A dodge, perhaps?

Climbing the stairs at Upton Park tube, the home of West Ham football ground, I was met with the incongruous sound of soothing Classical piano music coming from the loudspeakers in the entrance hall.  It doesn't do to have preconceived ideas about a place - life is full of surprises.

3 comments:

  1. By chance I landed on this blog today- and I'm pleased to see new observations from your last London journey! Wonderful observations! My favourite is nr. 2: oriental flair and I could imagine strolling again through a Jerusalem shuk! Funny the long hair tail of una rossa the long white beard of the oriental seller does match in some way! - and fine the a bit fading Caravaggio- copy (Jesus in Emmaus) whose bright colours in original (what a red!) I saw in in Amsterdam two years ago. I very like it that you mentioned some sounds - because the sounds and different voices belong to the very important ingredients of our cities- but sadly, here are the limits of photography -unless you would take a video/film. Yes, you are absolutely right: "Life is full of surprises" ( if we are using all senses...)

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  2. "life is full of surprises" - the last phase of your journey reminds me a bit of Alice's adventourous journey - new words- new things- new expereinces -"...had got so much into the way of expecting nothing but out-of-of.the-way things to happen, that it seemed quite dull and stupid for life to go on in the common way." I think you didn't go on in the common way!

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  3. My congratulations to your Magister of Artium in Photography- and the award for the really brilliant book about the finds and serendipities in red -given by such an excellent internatonal magazine for photography - some photos can be seen on the cover page! You should be proud of yourself!

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