Start the day in Brixton at the Starbucks next to the tube station. The coffee’s ok but the sausage buttie is as dismal as expected. It’s quite a while since I’ve tried one of these but after the first bite I immediately recall just how bland they are. The woman behind the counter who takes … Continued
Another late start and another Pret a Manger, this time the one in Waterloo Place. It’s around lunchtime so I go for the chicken and avocado sandwich which is ok but there’s not much bird meat and an awful lot of green stuff to munch through. My taste buds are a little jaded (which, in … Continued
Get out the tube at Lancaster Gate, just opposite the Royal Lancaster Hotel, a place that, whenever I see it, always makes me feel slightly uncomfortable as it inevitably brings back memories of when I first moved to London in the mid ‘70s and got a job with the Post Office in telephone accounts. By … Continued
Take the short walk from Charing Cross tube station to the National Portrait Gallery for Pure Essence, an exhibition focusing on the portraits – sculptures, paintings and drawings – of Alberto Giacometti. The full price entry is £17, which is a bit steep, but with my National Art Fund card I get in for £6.75, … Continued
Get up a bit late today. Well, it is the weekend. But now it’s too late to get a sausage and bacon roll from the West Cornwall Pasty shop on Marylebone station. Then I discover that my fallback position, the Eat shop on Baker Street is shut due to ‘technical reasons’. Further on down Baker … Continued
After my excursion up north, it’s back to London and the Lisson Gallery, just round the corner from Edgware Road tube station. I once spent a week painting the walls of this place in preparation for a Sol LeWitt show of drawings and sculptures. Such was the Minimalist nature of the works, especially the drawings, … Continued
Pick up a Guardian and go to Starbucks for a coffee and a bacon buttie that doesn’t really taste of anything. Throw away most of the paper – the sections on sport, travel, cooking, families, the TV guide and all the advertising junk – and speed read what’s left, catching up on all the grim … Continued
A new morning dawns in Manchester and there’s a brief dry intermission, so I walk back to Piccadilly station, grab a sausage and bacon roll and get the train to Liverpool. The ticket is only £8 return, which is not bad, but the 33-mile journey takes a staggering 54 minutes. So we’ll be travelling at … Continued
It’s time to leave London again, so it’s off to Euston and then get the train north for the triennial get-together of the Manchester University Wallflower Club. I’ve decided to withdraw from some of the communal events: the snooker tournament at Rileys in Chorlton-Cum-Hardy; the, see who can eat the most food contest at the … Continued
If you spend a lot of time travelling round London by tube, and especially if, like me, you’ve never driven a car or ridden a bike, then your mental map of the capital will probably be a bit distorted. Instead of being composed of an intricate spider’s web of landmarks and interlinking roads, it’s liable … Continued