Month: December 2010

Hope and Greenwood: Probably the best sweet shop ever

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I was in London today at the Royal Opera House and noticed that there was a Hope and Greenwood’s just around the corner.

Hope and Greenwood’s are probably the best old fashioned sweet shops ever. You can still by things by imperial measure and get bags of sweets made up. I’ve been to their shop near Forest Hill many times on trips to the Horniman Museum (I’ve mentioned the place many times), but I’ve never been to their central London shop.

It isn’t much bigger, but it is just as wondrous. The staff are wonderful and the range of confectionery is superb.

If you ever get a chance to visit one of their shops then you must, absolutely you must.

Listening in January

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I’ve been thinking more about my idea to critically listen to 1 song or track per day in January. I’ve been wondering which artist I should listen to. I really want to restrict it to 1 artist for January as it makes sense to listen consistently over the whole month.

The more I’ve thought about it the more I’ve thought that I could only listen to David Sylvian in Jan. It makes sense, to listen to an artist where I have a significant number of songs, and I do, and even though I thought of lots of different ideas for music and artists I kept coming back to David Sylviam, so that’s what I’m going to stick with.

The next thing to do is to work out how I organise my listening over the month. I’ll be giving that some thought over the next few days.

Ending in the word ‘git’

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I finished listening to Alexei Sayle’s book “Stalin ate my homework”. I have to say I really liked it. It was at times funny, sad, thought provoking and insightful.

It is one of those books you wish there was more of when you get to the end of it. Even so it was a good place to stop. I especially liked that he read it himself. That added a great deal to the listening experience.

I think that some of it will stick in my mind for quite some time to come although my own childhood was nothing like his, but even so, there are things that resonated with me.

It was, it is, a great book.

Getting to the end of the homework

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This is a really contrived title I know, but I wanted to write something about getting close to the end of Alexei Sayle’s ‘Stalin Ate my Homework’.

I am so enjoying this book, which is much more coherent than ‘Great Bus Journeys of the World’, which I read a look time ago.

it is so good to hear him reading about his own life, and it is sad, funny and amazing all at once.

Dusk, Snow, Woods and Alexei Sayle

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I walked home tonight just at dusk hoping that the light would hold for long enough for me to get through the woods before it got dark and I started to walk into things or get lost.

I was ok thankfully and just made it.

I continued listening to Alexei Sayle’s “Stalin Ate My Homework” on the way back which is an excellent read, or in my case listen as I’ve got the audio book version. I would recommend it to anyone. Unless of course you don’t like Alexei Sayle in which case you probably shouldn’t bother with it.

I must be over half way through now and I’ve really enjoyed it. It is funny and poignant at the same time, and a deeply personal reflection on his quite unusual childhood.

I’ve especially enjoyed the way the book doesn’t so much tell the story of his childhood but more meanders through it in a seemingly haphazard manner. I guess in many ways that childhood is like that. Today it made a good backdrop to my journey.