Regent's Park

After collecting my visa from the Ghanian High Commission last Tuesday there was one further task I had to do in London while waiting for 7 o'clock, the time I could get on an off-peak train.
Back in May my brother had been in London for some reason or other and had managed to lose his wallet which contained, along with money and bank cards, his driving licence and was therefore fairly important for him to get back. Somehow his wallet was found and was waiting for him at Marylebone station
I usually get the train home from London from Euston.
Marylebone and Euston stations are not that far from each other.  In fact according to google maps they are less than a mile and a half away from each other. They are also not very well connected by the tube, there are some very complicated changes.
I therefore thought that the easiest course of action to get from Euston to Marylebone and back again would be to walk. Unfortunately after walking about 15 minutes from Euston the heavens opened and I was soaked through within minutes. After seeking refuge in an EAT I continued my journey, collected the wallet and was returning to Euston when, miracle of miracles, the sun came out, blue sky appeared.
I was next to one of the most beautiful parks and had time to spare.
I don't think I've been to Regent's Park before but it is fancy! it even had very clean, free public toilets, which is my mark of any swanky place.
I think I've overexposed these pictures but it was a glorious, unexpected burst of evening sunshine that made a slightly stressy day feel a lot better.

Wise Words

Wandering around London

Last week I spent a couple of days wandering around London in between long stretches of time sitting in the Ghanian High Commission applying for and collecting a visa for my upcoming trip.
 I'm off to Ghana a week today, but for now here are some pictures of my London trip.

 

 

1. People queing to take their pictures with the 9 3/4 sign
2. Platform 93/4
3. Kings Cross is now fancy
4. St Pancras
5&6. Lavender in front of the British Library
7. Surfing in the City
8&9. Southwark Cathedral, their new stained glass for the Jubilee
10. The Thames with St Paul's in the background
11. Disco pavement underneath London Bridge
12.Along the riverbank, Tower of London, Tower Bride, Canary Wharf and some sort of warship
13. 221b Baker Street, home of Mr Holmes
14. Sherlock's house
15. Fancy railings
16. Pigeons and a piece of blue sky

North Berwick

This gorgeous fishing village on the east coast of Scotland not far from Edinburgh has featured large in my family's history.
My maternal Grandmother grew up here, my mother and uncle spent all their summer holidays here and learnt to swim in the outdoor, sea fed pool. We went on several family holidays here too when I was a child.
I visited again last November, it had probably been 10 years since I'd last been.
There have been several changes; the outdoor swimming pool where previous  Olympic athletes had swum has been demolished and concreted over. It is currently being used as parking for small boats and alsohouses the National Sea Bird Centre. I feel like its a cliché to quote the song and not quite accurate. The old swimming pool couldn't be used year round whereas the Sea Bird centre has more appeal and can be used by a wider range of people.

My favourite thing about North Berwick has always been the sea though. Looking out towards the several small islands including the Bass Rock and watching all the varieties of sea birds and people enjoying the beach, well its pretty great.

Royal Exchange

The Royal Exchange is one of my favourite buildings in Manchester.
It is a theatre built within a much larger room. The building used to be the cotton exchange and was the largest room for commerce in the world.
I've been there twice for performances this year, to see the play Two and to see The Unthanks play .
I really enjoy going partly as the theatre is in the round which makes for slightly unusual performances.
I took some pictures there on the photography course this last Saturday.

Movement

I went on a really helpful photography course today. I have a DSLR but have been mostly guessing. It was really great to have guidance on what I could do and what I could create.
Here are some pictures from around Manchester today.
There were a lot of people skating and riding their bikes.

Fandom

There is always going to be something of a struggle if you a fairly sensible person and you are a fan.

Whether its being a fan of a particular football team, actor, musician or film, when your happiness and joy is closely linked to the object of your obsession, it becomes a bit unreal.
You know logically that it really doesn't matter one bit to your team if you don't happen to wear your lucky pants but any football fan worth their salt wouldn't  dare take the chance when their team has a big match.
You are completely aware that your tattoo of your favourite actor marks you out as slightly odd but you don't regret it for a second.
I know that the members of my favourite band; a band which  I have loved with the power of a thousand fiery suns since I was a wide-eyed 12 year old, a band on whom I have spent an unknown amount of money (probably totalling several thousand pounds) going to see are not suddenly going to become my best friends.

 Somewhere wedged  in between logic and fantasy comes reality.

Your team wins the cup, your favourite actor plays in your local theatre, the next book in the series comes out.
It is Amazing!!

What I'm trying to say is that being a fan is half a fantasy of what could be, and, if you are at least mostly sane, the crushing awareness that the reality will never quite match the dream.

Except sometimes it does. The stars align, Karma pays you back, God gives you a present and for one perfect, shining moment it's exactly what you dreamed it would be.

My name is Helen Stoker are I'm a Hanson fan.
Last November Hanson played 5 gigs around the UK. I went to 4 of them.
This chalked up my Hanson seeing experiences to 25.
They also happened to give a lecture at Oxford Union. My cousin was the then editor of the Oxstu, the student newspaper. I begged her to see if I could firstly get into the lecture and also possibly to interview them. She worked magic and arranged, between the facebook message I sent  her at 2am and the lecture at 8pm that I could do both.
I spent the 1 and a half hour train journey from Birmingham where they'd played the previous night and where I'd been seeing family, down to Oxford consciously telling myself to calm down.
Their talk was great; funny, insightful, a closer look at the music industry that we mostly take for granted, an updated version of a similar talk I'd seen them give at North Western University in 2005.

Then we went upstairs.
There is something startling about being in the same room as people whose image you had on your childhood bedroom wall 100 fold, a slight buzzing, as if your nerve endings can suddenly generate electricity. 
We met, shook hands and sat down to chat. It was perfect.

When I was younger I did definitely want to marry a specific Hanson brother. While I was commending my 12 year old self for having really excellent taste, I am now older and they are all already married to people who are not me and what I really wanted was for them to be lovely. For them to be deserving in some way of my adoration. To have a nice chat and for them to be interested in talking to me.

I walked out of the room half an hour later feeling amazing.
My main thought as I left the building was that it had been worth it. That I hadn't been wrong or deceived in any way to have devoted so much time and thought to them.
Now several months later I play back parts of the conversation in my head, thinking about things I could've said differently that might have had a slightly different outcome, a greater chance of them remembering me . But when I walked down the stairs and away from them leaving them still in the room, it felt perfect.
I remember sincerely thinking this is it. I can stop now.