Brazilian naval training vessel heads up to Tower Bridge

Good Year floats past...

There is always something different floating past!

Towards the west...

London on fire!

Drum for your Life

I have wanted to play the Dhol drum for a long time now. I was hooked into the sound through my love of the Afro Celt Sound System. WOMAD 2007 - the mud year - The Dhol Foundation played in the Red Tent and that was it! What a sound! I met Johnny Kalsi for the first time, he very kindly trudged through the mud from backstage to sign copies of their recent album, Drums and Roses. Now I was really hooked. Decided I wanted to learn to play and checked out TDF's website. Unfortunately the only classes were all in West London.
WOMAD 2009 was the twisted ankle year. I turned my ankle on the site and had to be taken in a buggy back to the tent, where I spent the next 24 hours with my leg up! I missed Peter Gabriel but was determined to get to JK's Dhol workshop. I hobbled down to the arena and got my front row seat with a Djembe drum only to be told that JK had appeared in the morning in place of a late arrival. I was devastated - not a good festival year!
Not to be put off WOMAD 2010 provided me with another opportunity, yes I got my front seat and drum. Not only that, I got to go up and play JK's Dhol on the stage! After the workshop JK gave me contact details of a new class starting in East London. This WOMAD saw the Afro Celt Sound System return to the stage. Magnificent, as good as ever - if you have never heard of them then what a treat you are in for, if you have heard them and never seen them perform - YOU MUST!! Got my album Capture signed by ACSS after their gig.
When I got home from WOMAD I contacted Dav who didn't actually get back to me until March 2011. However during that time I had purchased my Dhol through ebay and it stood very nicely in my living room. Classes started in late March and every Tuesday I join a small band of keen dhol players - I love it! JK has been to visit us once so far.
The Dhol is a very loud instrument so I can't play or practice in my flat because of the neighbours (well I do but only when they are out) otherwise it's the legs. However I do play to the kids at school - they love it! Every day I get better and faster. My dream is to be good enough to perform with TDF.
Since then I have seen ACSS at the Barbican in October 2010 at the Barbican - smokin'. TDF went to Stratford Circus - ace! ACSS at the FEIS 2011 Finsbury Park - on fire!

Bodies and fires

With such a large 'back garden' its not surprising that I see a lot and obviously follow news stories relating to the surrounding area. Two most notably: the headless and handless torso of a woman found in a large bag was fished out of the docks opposite us - I wonder who she was and how anyone actually contemplates, let alone sets about, cutting limbs, and particularly the head, off a body? I just hope the missing bits don't get washed up on the shoreline for an unsuspecting 'mudlark' to find. The second incident was waking to find the sky over towards Deptford filled with black smoke - this of course was the factory fire which had started at midnight that, not only caused 200 residents to be evacuated to a park in their PJ's, but also caused traffic chaos the following morning. An update on that is that last night (29th April) at around 7.30 the sky was again filled with black smoke coupled with an orange glow at its base. The fire had obviously re-ignited! Sirens could be heard from what seemed many different locations across London - it only seems like that due to the water expanse and the echo I guess. The sky is clear this morning so it is obviously out for the time being!

Dead battery

There is nothing like a dead battery to ruin your day. What is more annoying is remembering when and for what you used the interior light! Why did I not switch it off? Well done AA (thank god for Home Start) you managed to kick start my day except it was 2 hours too late and the momentum was lost. Memo to self - must buy jump leads and spare car with good battery in case of emergency.

Primark

Easter bank holiday Monday - what on earth made me do it? Did I seriously believe only I would think a shopping outing to Oxford Street and the newly opened Primark store would be a breeze? Well let me tell you it was a living hell. Found the store together with my daughter, to our amazement we had to form an orderly queue around the block to get in. Thinking this must be worth it we did just that. On entering the store our eyes fell upon price tags such as £3.00 £4.00 £5.00... all affordable and we both found ourselves caught up in the process of filling our baskets. The queue to the fitting rooms stretched from one end of the giant store to the other - decision not to do that one made instantly, well at these prices you can afford to play hit and miss. We continued to find bargains, anything and everything we considered. Armed with our cheap goods we proceeded to the checkouts, these were as busy if not more than the fitting rooms. We searched upstairs for a smaller queue only to find all were long, very long and snaking in and around the rails of goods. My daughter and I gave each other a look, nothing needed to be said, we dumped the baskets and made as quick an exit as we could via the hoardes. We got over the loss very quickly and I can only assume that the so called bargains we armed ourselves with were a) crap b) not essential c) not worth the aggravation. Never again!!