Buzzed: Temporary changes to Ferndale Low Traffic Neighbourhood set to be made permanent by Lambeth Council
To Clapham South! …on Saturday morning for ParkRun. With the bloody Great Wall of Brockwell continuing to make my home park out of bounds, I thought I would try my chances with the Bright Young Things of SW4.
This was the first time I have been to Wankerville in a month or so. The Clapham North Deep Level mural is now completed. It looks magnificent.
It’s the work of WOM - a female street art collective. The mural documents artists past and present who have brightened up the streets of the city with their work. I hope the S Ldn pesky taggers respect the new mural.
Clapham Common ParkRun was HUGE. An email later in the morning confirmed that there was 953 runners. Woh. That’s an awful lot for the Race Director and lovely marshals to manage.
I’m not a fan of the course. It’s around the… Common, but staying on the trails and not the pavement. I prefer running on concrete.
It was like running on a beach in places. The Common is bone dry. I thought I developed a tan line above my running socks. But nope, it was dust.
I can see why the Coffee Ponce of SW8 is not keen on running around these parts.
The cross country route in an urban setting led to some tight corners and the odd bit of branch ducking.
Pace making was provided by the Clapham Chasers Running Club. I tried to hitch a ride along with Mr 21 Minutes for most of the course. I managed to keep up for the first 3km, but then flagged for the final 2km.
There was an endless zig zag funnel to negotiate at the end to collect your token. It’s understandable, given the number of runners.
It felt like queuing to see Her Maj (GAWD Bless her) with a bunch of Clapham kids sky high on endorphins.
The race email confirmed that I finished 116th out of the 953 field. I was first in my age category. This is more a comment on the age demographic of Clapham than my running abilities. I was four seconds off a Clapham PB with a time of 21’36”.
I stopped off at Lidl on the ride home for the Saturday croissant treat. Some car twat had parked his shitty vehicle right in font of the bicycle racks.
Cheers, car twat.
This happens frequently at Lidl. I suspect it was the reason that led to Lidl removing the bicycle racks. I take great pride in that I lobbied Lambeth and made sure they were restored as part of the original planning consent.
To Albert Square!
Doof, doof, doof, doof, etc.
Nope, not that one, but the SW8 Albert Square. The Residents Association was holding a table top sale around various properties.
I was tipped off by A, speculating that it could be a happy hunting ground for any CD house clearance.
It wasn’t.
Fans of designer handbags might have had more fun than I did.
To the Lambeth Country Show! …shortly after luncheon. Christ, it was STEAMING out there. It didn’t seem to bother Flutie. He was wearing long sleeves as he entertained the over-heated motorists of SW8.
I cycled along the usual route through Brixton and Railton Road. This was closed for what was optimistically called ‘Reimagining Railton Road.’
It was actually rather decent. Some new public realm making bollocks was in place with the road painted yellow pointing in the direction of the Vill-aaage. Families were walking up and down, car free.
It reminded me of some of the fun we had in central Brixton in the early 90’s with Reclaim the Streets. It’s a shame that closing off Railton Road to all forms of transport wiped out the LTN access for cyclists.
Hey hoe.
I parked up outside the Lido. The summer queues were HUGE. They were also exclusively white. Fusion has fucked up with it’s £8 swims and online app booking only.
The Country Show was so so. It felt odd not being in the usual end of term position for mid-July in the calendar. It was still chuffing hot. The grass around Brockwell is completely parched after a month long festival programme.
Most of my time was spent snapping away for Buzz, and trying to avoid kids from schools. It was a good road test for the PEN F camera. I need to use it a lot more to get a feel for composing and working around some of the shortcuts.
Most of the Show was given over to poncey food and over-priced drinks. I decided to give the Thai Yoga session at £20 a miss. I didn’t see the Coffee Ponce of SW8.
New for this year was a traditional Wall of Death attraction. That looked half decent in a geezer-ish sort of way. It took me back to Goose Fair in the Fair City.
There was massive queues for Vauxhall Farm and the vegetable shaped like a penis tent. Given the extra temperature inside, I decided to keep on walking, keep on snapping.
I stayed for a couple of hours, but had a few chores to carry out back in the flat. The neighbours along South Lambeth Road were sunbathing in their front garden. It’s one hell of a sun trap, albeit not the most peaceful place to soak up the rays.
To Liverpool Street! I was summoned back to the bloody Estuary Wilds.
Oh dear.
I cycled on the Brompton on the straightest route from North to South. The Romans were very good at building roads. The Oval was starting to empty for the World Test Series. It looked like it had been a tired and emotional afternoon for some.
I reached Borough.
OH MY DAYS.
Close your eyes, Jase. The World Naked Bike Ride passed through. This seemed like the stragglers, in every sense. The ride had been rolling out around central London all day. There was some SERIOUS sun tans on show. At least they had the weather for it.
A Moulton Spaceframe overtook me on Ldn Bridge. I found this more of a turn on tbh.
I was back in the bloody Estuary Wilds in time for the Man City match.
And booze,
Always booze.
Chin chin.
